# Being homeless in New Jersey **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 29, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282 "2014-04-29T16:04:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/21 "2014-05-01T14:17:58Z")
Go to Social Services immediately. Tell them you need Temporary Rental Assistance, a homeless shelter and food stamps. Once you find a place, they will pay your rent for at least a year. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/22 "2014-05-01T18:34:07Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Go to Social Services immediately. Tell them you need Temporary Rental Assistance, a homeless shelter and food stamps. Once you find a place, they will pay your rent for at least a year. Does this apply to childless adults? I have a cousin who went that route, but she was a single mom with three kids under 5. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/23 "2014-05-01T19:54:28Z")
> [@Captain\_Gutgore\_Blooddrink](#): > > I don’t intend to stay homeless at all, and I want to work very badly. I recently failed at owning my own business, which is why I’m where I am. Bloomingdale, NJ to be precise about the location. I do have severe spinal arthritis, but I’m able to work through that as long as I don’t have to lift 50lbs 10hrs a day. > > I have job interviews in the area, but my friend who invited me to stay with her has decided she would rather not have a roommate again after a week. I’m sorry to hear about your business; I had the same thing happen to me a couple years ago; if not for my SO, I would have been on the street. I actually tried to break up with her because I felt like such a failure, I didn’t want her to suffer through a life of poverty - she just laughed at me and said, “when I met you, you didn’t even have a working door - I’m sure we’ll work through this.” Anyway, I did some research at the time, the best I could come up with is free camping in a national park, and dandelions and the roots of cattails are edible. I wish I had better advise to offer. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/24 "2014-05-01T22:53:28Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Contact Social Security and file a claim for SSDI Is the OP disabled? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/25 "2014-05-02T03:20:50Z")
Find a gentler climate as soon as you can. Weather in NJ has been awful for the last six months. Have you contacted a local area church? They might be able to find you temporary shelter while you get a job. Maybe you could place the cat in a no-kill shelter temporarily? There’s one in East Hanover on Route Ten. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/26 "2014-05-02T13:14:29Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Find a gentler climate as soon as you can. Weather in NJ has been awful for the last six months. Past performance is no indicator of future results. To misquote _Game of Thrones_ and The Straight Dope, “Spring is Coming (It’s Taking Longer Than We Thought)”. If this is really short-term, weather shouldn’t be as much an issue going forward. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/27 "2014-05-02T16:42:47Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > Past performance is no indicator of future results. To misquote _Game of Thrones_ and The Straight Dope, “Spring is Coming (It’s Taking Longer Than We Thought)”. If this is really short-term, weather shouldn’t be as much an issue going forward. :dubious: I was actually thinking long term. Given global warming, massive hurricanes like Sandy are far more likely to head up the east coast now. Sandy was one of the scariest things I’ve ever lived through. It wasn’t just the coast that got hit. I live miles from the shore and my town still got badly hurt with downed power lines and massive tree destruction. You don’t want to be homeless here during hurricane season. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/28 "2014-05-02T19:37:48Z")
Hurricanes are no more likely to strike NJ as they are to strike DC, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, the Gulf Coast, Florida, etc. You want to be concerned about storms - worry about our much more frequent nor’easters, which we get hit with a couple of times a year, versus hurricanes, which only occasionally swing up this way. Hell, the nor’easter that hit us following Sandy did more damage in my neighborhood than did Sandy herself (though the extra damage was due to Sandy having passed thru and saturating the ground) No one truly wants to be homeless any time. No one wants to be homeless during a hurricane, nor a tornado, nor a typhoon, nor an earthquake, volcano, mudslide, brushfire and so on. But these events should be the least of the OPs worries. If this was September, then maybe opting for a warmer clime might make more sense, but if the OP thinks this will be short term, running because there is a small chance of a hurricane (and a really really really small chance of a Sandy-type storm hitting at precisely high tide) is just piss-poor risk assessment. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/29 "2014-05-02T23:08:56Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Is the OP disabled? :dubious: The OP has mentioned this: > [@Captain\_Gutgore\_Blooddrink](#): > > … I do have severe spinal arthritis… ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282/30 "2014-05-05T13:10:41Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Does this apply to childless adults? I have a cousin who went that route, but she was a single mom with three kids under 5. Absolutely. When I worked in real estate, we helped plenty of single people find places that would take TRA. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-homeless-in-new-jersey/687282.md?page=1)