PLUMSTED – Township officials recently responded to a letter to the governing body requesting further information about a homeless survey being conducted in the community. Also discussed during a recent Township Committee meeting was the possibility of an Ocean County satellite office.
The non-profit agency Monarch Housing Associates has been tasked with conducting a survey about the homeless population in areas of Ocean County. They had requested use of a township office, Committeeman James Hagelstein said.
The survey concerns learning if there are homeless in town, the circumstances that led to their being homeless and how to help them.
However, there is no truth to the rumor that they are creating a homeless shelter in town, he said.
“I heard some online chatter about it. All of it was unfounded,” Hagelstein added.
He said, “if you are curious, you can Google Monarch Services Ocean County. It goes into every detail about the homeless, what their situation is. What the demographics are and what is going on in your town. It is for a county service and the County was interested in coming to Plumsted Township to do their survey.”
Hagelstein noted that other communities have also welcomed the agency into their towns to perform the study. “I reached out to our chief of police. We do have some homeless in town and have individuals who need services and need help.”
County Satellite Office
Mayor Robert Bowen noted prior discussions with Ocean County about establishing a satellite office in Plumsted. “They have their main office in Toms River, an office at the Ocean County Mall, one in Matawan and one in Lakewood so we could potentially be their fourth satellite office.”
“I was at the County Connection at the Ocean County Mall that has all the services, senior services, social services and is a very large tourism bureau. We are accessing our needs for the town and what we’d like to see on Main Street,” the mayor added.
He noted that “one of the complaints that we had when we took the Town Hall off Main Street is that we took the foot traffic with us.” The mayor said the dynamics of such a satellite office on Main Street in relation to food traffic would be something to determine.
Bowen said the County Connection served as a nice draw for people to come to the mall for people seeking services, passports and other reasons.”
Hagelstein also spoke about the benefit of having services available to township residents locally as opposed to having to go into Toms River. “Let’s face it – it’s not always easy getting to Toms River so we are asking them to consider bringing services to us and it will help our foot traffic and population.”
County architects have looked at 31 Main Street – the former Town Hall and later a welcome center for the municipality – could house such a satellite office.
“This would help our senior population. We don’t know if this will happen, it is still in talks and discussions are going well,” Hagelstein added.
“We are looking to bring back our downtown (Business District) bigger and stronger than ever,” Mayor Bowen said.
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