Homeless encampments at the Jersey Shore were reeling Saturday from a fire death at one, and a threat to shut down another.
One occupant of the camp known as "Tent City" in Lakewood died in a fire early Saturday morning. That encampment is in the process of being shut down.
Lakewood police said an officer on routine patrol noticed the fire around 2:10 a.m. When he entered the woods to investigate, he found the badly burned victim not far from a tent that was fully engulfed in flames.
Details on the victim, including the person's name, have not been disclosed pending notification of relatives. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but authorities say the blaze does not appear to be suspicious.
The blaze came as authorities in Toms River, about 8 miles away, considered evicting a separate homeless encampment tucked up against the Garden State Parkway.
Residents of that camp, and an advocate trying to find them shelter, said the management of a nearby apartment complex has threatened to evict the 10 people living in the woods on Monday. But Toms River police say they have no plans to move against the camp until they determine if it occupies private or public property.
"Let them come arrest me," said Pat Maloney, one of the camp's residents. "Then they'll have to put me up somewhere."
"This is not where we want to be," added resident Janine Knapp. "But it's where we are."
Tomas Torres lost his job as a restaurant kitchen worker a few months ago, then lost his apartment when he couldn't pay the rent. He has been in the woods for a month.
"I don't have a job, I don't have any money, and I don't know what I'm going to do," said Torres, adding he and some of the others look for work when they can, but have not succeeded in finding jobs. "Believe me, this is not where I want to be."
The homeless people live in the woods near Exit 82 of the Garden State Parkway, on land near two private apartment complexes. Paul Hulse, a homeless advocate who has been working to try to find homes and social services for residents of both the encampments, said the management of the nearby Emerald Apartments told him and the camp residents that management would move to have the camp evicted on Monday. Officials of the complex did not respond to messages left seeking comment on Saturday, including on an emergency number.
But Ralph Stocco, a community affairs officer with the Toms River Police Department, said police have no plans to move against the complex on Monday. He said the department received a citizen complaint about the camp this week, and went to the area to investigate.
"We are doing a survey of the area to determine if the area is on private or public property," he wrote in an email. "If it is public property, we will be working with social services and other agencies to address any concerns or issues involving the residents in the area."
The incidents reflect an ongoing struggle to provide for the needy in Ocean County, which itself is struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy. The county, which is home to numerous wealthy beach towns as well as low-income towns where poverty is a serious problem, has no homeless shelter.
Advocates for the homeless have been battling in court for years with Lakewood and county officials over the Tent City encampment, located about a mile from the stadium where the minor league Lakewood BlueClaws play their home games.
Last April, both sides reached an agreement in which the Lakewood camp would gradually be shut down and its 80 or so residents provided a year of shelter elsewhere. As camp occupants leave, their makeshift shelters are torn down, and new residents are prohibited from entering the camp.
Maloney, who describes himself as a Vietnam veteran with psychiatric issues including bipolar disorder, said he is distressed by what he considers the hypocrisy of county residents and officials.
"Everybody says there ought to be a homeless shelter in Ocean County -- as long as it's not near them," he said. "They think we're all drug-addicted fiends. We're not. We're good people whose shoes I hope they never have to walk a mile in."
