Cities struggle to aid homeless in bitter cold

Cities with homeless populations are scrambling to keep them safe in dangerous weather this week.

In Clifton, where an unidentified homeless man was found dead last Friday, police are following the guidelines of the state's Code Blue initiative to find homeless people to persuade them to come out of the cold.

Mayor James Anzaldi said police will look for homeless people in their usual haunts, like Dundee Preserve, the wooded areas behind the city's Pathmark, under the Piaget viaduct and spots along East Madison Avenue.

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Bergen County is also taking a proactive approach. Police use three points of criteria to decide when to transport a homeless person to the shelter, said county Emergency Management Coordinator Lt. Matthew Tiedemann.

If the temperature goes below 32 degrees with precipitation, below 25 degrees without precipitation or if the National Weather Service calls for a windchill of zero for two hours or more, the law is in effect and homeless people are taken to safety, said Tiedemann.

The frigid temperatures played a part in the Clifton man's death, although the cause of death has not been determined, city police officials said.

Detective Lt. Robert Bracken said they are awaiting the medical examiner's determination. The white male, who was in his 50s, was discovered around 9 a.m. Friday in the Botany Village section by another homeless resident.

Bracken added that city police do their best to try to help the homeless, particularly when the cold is so extreme.

"One of the problems is that frequently they don't want help," Bracken said.

During the day, those seeking respite from the cold can use a warming station at the Senior Center on the grounds of the Municipal Complex, 900 Clifton Ave. After 4 p.m. city hall is open as a warming station.

For temporary needs, such as if a boiler bursts in an apartment house, the city can open the Senior Center or Woodrow Wilson Middle School as a shelter, Anzaldi said.

In Bergen County, Tiedemann said the plummeting mercury is doing some of the work for them.

"The fact is that during this period of extended period of cold weather that it seems like a lot of people are coming forward," Tiedemann said. "They know they are not going to make it on their own."

The homeless are transported to Bergen County Housing, Health, and Human Services Center, on River Street in Hackensack.

While the law allows police to transport the homeless to the shelter, it is up to them if they want to stay, said Mary Sunden, executive director of Christ Church Community Development Corporation, which manages sheltering operations at the River Street center.

“People can come in themselves if they need to,” said Sunden. “The difference with Code Blue is that we’ll reach a little deeper and work a little harder to accept pretty much everyone.”

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Clifton is also gearing up for the Jan. 24 NJ Counts, the annual statewide homeless census, and is working with the City of Passaic and St. Mary's General Hospital to get a better handle on the area's homeless population. Clifton figures that currently they have a dozen to 15 homeless.

The effort is to be held at St Mary's and is meant in part to assist them get through winter's harshest month and in part to entice these residents to come forward so they can collect data and identifications on the local homeless population, said Councilwoman Lauren Murphy, who along with Anzaldi and other city officials meet weekly to find ways to assist the homeless.

Those who participate will be offered breakfast and lunch, health screenings, showers as well as the hats, gloves etc., she said. Clifton's Health Department is asking for donations, new hats, scarfs, Chapstick, and hand and foot warmers to give out.

Staff writer RodrigoTorrejon contributed to this story.