Food, haircuts, and assistance for the homeless

If the homeless shelter was overcrowded Tuesday night, Kevin Davis’ backup plan was to sleep on the streets.

“It’s a depressing state, but there’s hope that some things will get better,” said Davis, 42, of Trenton, who became homeless three years ago when he lost his home to a foreclosure. Davis, who is looking for low-income housing, was one of over 300 homeless people who came to the First Baptist Church of Trenton Tuesday for help finding housing, jobs health care, and other necessities, such as clothing and haircuts.

The event was Mercer County’s Project Homelessness Connect, held twice yearly to keep tabs on the homeless and provide for their basic needs. Many local nonprofits and government organizations were on hand to participate.

The 312 homeless people who attended the event were also surveyed. The 24-question survey asked where the person planed on sleeping last night. Respondents could tick off such answers as on the street, in an emergency shelter, or in transitional housing and jail.

Other questions asked how long they had been homeless and why. Some of the responses they could have chosen were eviction, foreclosure, alcohol and drug abuse problems and domestic violence.

Amber Conover, 25, of Trenton, became homeless four months ago, when she left her abusive boyfriend. She has been staying with siblings and at a homeless shelter since then. Conover, who is hoping to earn her high school equivalency diploma, attended yesterday’s event to get clothes and an identification card so she could find work.

“It adds more stress to everyday problems,” Conover said about being homeless.

Looking down at a plate of food and circling her plastic spoon around some red beans, Conover said, “I know that the only person that can make it better is me.”

Project Homelessness Connect was held in conjunction with a count of the homeless. A regular count of those living on the streets, in emergency shelters and transitional housing is mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which uses the numbers to calculate its funding for local housing and service programs.

Figures from Tuesday's count were not available by press time, but last year the Point-in-Time count recorded 1,067 homeless men, women and children in Mercer County.

The actual number may have been higher, due to difficulties in counting everybody.

Between 1,500 and 3,000 people used emergency shelters last year or lived on the street in 2009, said Herb Levine, executive director of the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness, a public-private partnership implementing a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Mercer County.

Levine said the homelessness population in Mercer County is not as high as in other parts of the state because of social services offered in the county, including offering housing vouchers for chronically homeless people.

Mercer County distributed close to $290,000 in funding for homeless-support services in 2009, including housing, prevention, shelters, and food and nutrition, said county spokesman Pete Daly.

County freeholders were expected to vote Tuesday night on a resolution approving a competitive contract with HomeFront for “Rapid Re-housing” for Mercer families who become homeless, the first such contract between HomeFront and Mercer for this service, Daly said.

Agencies and organizations that participated in Tuesday's Project Homelessness Connect included Mercer County’s Board of Social Services, Department of Human Services and Veterans Services, and One Stop Centers, the Rescue Mission of Trenton, HomeFront, Mercer Street Friends, Trenton’s human services and health departments and the event’s main sponsor, United Way of Greater Mercer County.

Ruth Savage of Ewing and Rebecca Sylvan of Hopewell arrange clothing for the homeless at Project Homelessness Connect.