Christ Episcopal Church Parish House, built in 1882, would house a 17-bed overnight shelter for people in search of permanent housing. It currently hosts the offices of the Affordable Housing Alliance and the Toms River Housing and Homeless Coalition. The Affordable Housing Alliance would run the shelter. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service
[Episcopal News Service] Christ Episcopal Church in Toms River and the Diocese of New Jersey are ramping up efforts to defend the church against the mayor’s effort to seize its 11-acre property downtown and turn it into a park.
A Change.org petition, started by the Rev. Lisa Hoffman, Christ Church’s rector, and posted on Facebook May 13 by New Jersey Bishop Sally French, had garnered close to 2,900 signatures by midday May 15.
French told Episcopal News Service she hopes that the strong public response can demonstrate that taking Christ Church’s land “is not the will of the community and that those in government in Toms River might notice that and respond.”
The congregation, with the blessing of the diocese, opened a GoFundMe page on May 14 to go toward legal fees to oppose the Toms River mayor and township council. Eighteen hours later, the appeal had raised more than $2,900 of its $3,500 goal by midday May 15. If any money remains after any legal action is concluded, the appeal says, it will go toward Christ Church’s outreach ministries.
Christ Episcopal Church in Toms River, New Jersey, looks serene, but its leaders and members are gearing up to defend the congregation against the town mayor’s plan to seize its land. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service
To raise the church’s visibility, Hoffman plans to be at the church’s tent during the town’s May 17 Founder’s Day celebration, to be held on the same street as the church. That evening, she will open a “Voices for the Voiceless” rally with prayer. The rally was organized by other activists after the town council on April 30 approved the first reading of the land-seizure ordinance.
Hoffman told ENS that the rally’s purpose is “not going tit for tat with the mayor over homeless policies” but to tell people experiencing homelessness that “we are there to support them, to lift and encourage the people that find themselves in that situation and advocate for them.”
Christ Church also has been posting information on Facebook about its upcoming events to show its other contributions to the community. They include its annual rummage sale on May 16 and 17, a comedy show, a strawberry social fundraiser, a Christmas in July vendor event, the annual Pipes and Drums of Barnegat Bay event and a car and truck show. The congregation is also posting an updated list of its food pantry needs.
The efforts come ahead of the town zoning board’s anticipated final vote May 22 on the church’s application to allow for a 17-bed overnight homeless shelter on the church property.
Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick opposes the shelter, as do some of the church’s neighbors and others. He is behind the effort to buy the church’s land or seize it through eminent domain. The council is scheduled to take public comment and make a final decision on the land-seizure ordinance on May 28.
The shelter proposal calls for updating the church’s circa 1882 parish house while adding 949 square feet to it. Since 2023, the building has hosted staff from the Affordable Housing Alliance and the Toms River Housing and Homeless Coalition. Conversations about some sort of shelter began that year, Hoffman said.
The Affordable Housing Alliance would run the 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.
“The basic premise is to bring in people that are in the best position to get into permanent housing, give them 30 days [overnight housing] to gather resources and work with the AHA and other social service agencies to get them into permanent housing,” Hoffman said. In the morning, the Affordable Housing Alliance will provide transportation to social services, jobs and to any other agencies that the alliance has connected them with.
People will have to 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, she said.
French told ENS that this approach is rooted in the “fulfillment of our understanding of the Scripture and our call to be with the poor, the homeless and those who are in need, just as Christ asks us to.”
Christ Church tries to help immediate needs, she said, but church leaders are “not looking just for the quick fix, they’re looking for the long-term opportunity, and they’re trying to be good neighbors and good and faithful citizens. And that’s what we need our churches to be doing.”
The shelter plan requires a land zoning variance. Its current designation does not allow for a homeless shelter, but it does permit group homes for people with developmental and other disabilities, victims of domestic abuse, the elderly and the terminally ill. None of Toms River’s zoning categories allows for homeless shelters, and there are no homeless shelters in Toms River or Ocean County.
Christ Church’s outreach ministries bring many people onto the campus during the day. In addition to the help offered by the two housing agencies in the parish house, it has a weekly food pantry. Fourteen different Anonymous groups host 160 monthly meetings in the church’s buildings. Plentiful Plates of Ocean County uses its kitchen weekly to cook hot meals to distribute to local people experiencing homelessness.
Ocean Christian Community, which meets in the 1882 church on the property, offers twice-monthly meals, food and clothing distribution events.
The mayor has been highly critical of the presence of people experiencing homelessness in Toms River, accusing Ocean County of exaggerating the homeless issue and “dumping” homeless people into the township. He has criticized rock star Jon Bon Jovi’s pop-up JBJ Soul Kitchen at the downtown library, claiming it attracts people who are homeless.
If Rodrick succeeds in his effort to seize the land and shut down the church, “Toms River will lose a vital source of support for vulnerable residents,” the Change.org petition says.
Rodrick, who did not reply to Episcopal News Service requests for comment, recently told CBS 2 News New York that the land is “going to make for an excellent park.” He says 5,000 residences are within walking distance of the church campus.
“I am optimistic that we can come to some sort of resolution in the open market,” Rodrick said.
Additionally, he told Jersey Shore Online that the idea for the park has been over a year in the making. However, schematics presented at the April 30 town council meeting were dated April 28. They were done by a private engineering firm in the area, not the town’s own engineering department.
Christ Church is by far the largest property of the six that would be affected by the eminent domain proposal. The other properties include three private marinas along the Toms River and an empty lot that would form a waterfront park. The church property is not near the other five and is not on the waterfront.
The park at Christ Church would include pickleball courts, a soccer field and a playground. Plus, a skate park is planned for the land on which the parish house sits. It would come close to the church’s memorial garden, where the ashes of 324 people are buried. Christ Church, established in 1865, has 531 members in good standing and an average Sunday attendance of more than 150.
– The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is a freelance writer who formerly was a senior editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service.