Heated debate on New Jersey church’s homeless shelter plan sets up vote in June
[Episcopal News Service – Toms River, New Jersey] Christ Episcopal Church will have to wait a bit longer for a final decision on its overnight shelter proposal after pointed and divided debate took up the entire May 22 zoning board meeting in this Jersey Shore town.
Christ Episcopal Church member Daine Zaraza summarized her feelings with a sign she brought to the May 22 meeting of the Toms River, New Jersey, Zoning Board of Adjustment. Board members heard nearly 2.5 hours of public testimony on the church’s proposal for a 17-bed overnight shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/ Episcopal News Service
More than 40 people spoke to the Toms River Zoning Board of Adjustment on the congregation’s request for a zoning exception to allow for the homeless shelter. Most witnesses acknowledged that people experiencing homelessness in Toms River need support, but there was no consensus about whether the church’s proposed 17-bed shelter would be the right way to provide that help.
When testimony lasted until the board’s 10 p.m. deadline to end the meeting, board members agreed with the shelter advocates’ attorneys and those representing the proposal’s critics to delay a vote until its next meeting, on June 12. Both sides then will make their closing arguments, and the board will also hear from its staff before voting.
“I was disappointed they didn’t get to the vote, but it was important for everyone to be heard,” the Rev. Lisa Hoffman, Christ Church’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “I am glad that the zoning board allowed the space and time for everyone to speak.”
New Jersey Bishop Sally French told ENS that she also was disappointed by the delay. “At the same time, I am delighted to see the overwhelming amount of community support for Christ Church and its ministries – from those who spoke up at last night’s hearing on behalf of the congregation and those facing homelessness, to the thousands of people who have made statements, signed petitions and more,” she said. “Christ Church continues to be an active and vital part of their community, and the Diocese of New Jersey stands with them.”
The zoning hearing took place against the backdrop of Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick’s surprise move in late April to attempt to acquire the church’s 11-acre campus either through purchase or use of eminent domain. He proposes creating a park there with pickleball courts, a soccer field, children’s playground and a skate park. The latter would be located on the site of the proposed shelter.
Christ Episcopal Church Junior Warden member Eileen Schilling, Senior Warden Denise Henry and Christ Church rector the Rev. Lisa Hoffman listen to public testimony during the May 22 meeting. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/ Episcopal News Service
Last week, Rodrick postponed the second and final reading of the land seizure ordinance from the council’s regular May 28 meeting to the July 30 meeting. He claimed that the second hearing was never intended to be on May 28. The date was generated by the township’s computer system, he said.
Zoning board members must consider whether a change to allow the shelter would be beneficial to the community. Much of the May 22 testimony centered on how and where to provide services for unhoused people in the town of about 100,000.
Some speakers argued that a shelter on church property would make the town a “magnet” for people experiencing homelessness. Others said it would put neighborhood homes and the children who live in them at risk. An expert witness at an earlier board meeting predicted a 15% decline in the value of homes near the shelter.
Amanda Barton, who lives on Magnolia Lane adjacent to the proposed shelter’s location, told the board that a person she said was homeless walked up to her 12-year-old daughter and scared her while she was waiting for the school bus.
George McAuliffe, another Magnolia Lane resident, said no one he has talked to in the neighborhood is “heartless about the homeless situation.” However, he told the board that “the homeless crisis in Ocean County cries out for a comprehensive solution” with a combination of services offered in a location “that does not disrupt an entire community.”
Others spoke in favor of a new shelter while pushing back against claims it would negatively affect the neighborhood.
“The truth is there are people in this room who do not believe that homeless people are people at all,” said Christopher Goble, who told the board he is homeless. The proposed shelter “is an opportunity to help people in the community,” he said. “How is that not beneficial?”
Jeffrey Wild, an attorney and a trustee for the New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness, told the board that the First Amendment guarantees churches the right to minister to the poor, and that ministry is “inherently beneficial” to the community.
“I would urge you, rather than embark on a multi-year journey [into a legal fight], wasting taxpayer money, that you let the church do what the church is entitled to do,” he said.
Philip Studnicky, known as Cozin Philly among the unhoused people he helps through Just Believe, told the board, “everybody’s got to remember we’re all children of God; we’ve got to help each other out.”
Frequent mentions of God and faith irritated some in the room. One witness said she felt “manipulated” when “the words ‘Christianity’ and ‘Jesus’ keep coming up in this room” during a discussion of a land-use application, adding that neighbors would feel the same way if the applicant wasn’t a church.
Many members of Christ Episcopal Church attended the May 22 meeting of the Toms River, New Jersey, Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting wearing tee shirts the parish is selling as part of an effort raise the church’s visibility in the community. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/ Episcopal News Service
The shelter proposal calls for updating the church’s circa-1882 parish house while adding 949 square feet to it. Since 2023, the Affordable Housing Alliance and the Toms River Housing and Homeless Coalition have operated out of the building. The Affordable Housing Alliance would run the proposed shelter with a grant from Ocean County. Seventeen women and men who are experiencing homelessness would receive help accessing social services and finding permanent housing, as well as a safe place to eat, shower and sleep between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.
People would apply for a spot in the shelter and undergo a criminal background check and an assessment of whether they could move into more permanent housing, Hoffman said. They could stay for 30 nights as they worked with the Affordable Housing Alliance and other social service agencies to get them into permanent housing.
As for the delay of the mayor’s land-seizure proposal until July, Hoffman told ENS that she and others still will attend the intervening two council meetings on Mary 28 and June 25. Christ Church also will host an Interfaith Prayer Service for the Freedom of Religious Expression at 6 p.m. May 27, a date that originally corresponded to the eve of the May town council meeting when the matter was to be taken up.
“The council vote may be postponed, but the work continues,” Hoffman said.
The mayor has said that the postponement will give him time to talk to Christ Church and the owners of the other properties included in the proposed ordinance. Rodrick wants to combine those other five lots into a waterfront park along the Toms River. Christ Church’s property is not along the river and is not contiguous to any of the other lots.
“The mayor has not told us of any desire to meet, nor has he been in contact in any way,” French, the diocesan bishop, told ENS. “While we are not opposed to a meeting, we want to reaffirm that the church is not for sale.”
– The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is a freelance writer who formerly was a senior editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service.
