NJ Transit to tackle homelessness at Newark Penn with new resource center and initiatives
Transforming Newark Penn Station into the crown jewel of NJ Transit's train stations — and the front door to the city of Newark — has been a years-long effort with an emphasis on restoring the historic physical structure.
But now attention has turned to a more challenging and personal element: helping the people who use the station the most, and who rely on it because they have nowhere else to go.
Newark lawmakers, business executives, nonprofit advocates and state officials have announced a suite of services and investments — as well as a new resource center — to assist those without housing who shelter in Newark Penn."We can clean the station every single day, we can challenge our staff to make sure our trains are on time, but the problem and challenge of homelessness is a real one and a serious one," said Kris Kolluri, NJ Transit's CEO and president.
"These are human beings who need service, who need help, and our objective in working with all these partners is to make sure we come up with a pathway to make sure they are handled appropriately and they are taken care of so this station is not their last resort," Kolluri said during an event announcing the new initiative last week.
For years, NJ Transit's police department has had a dedicated team of officers who are primarily focused on unhoused people, partnering with local nonprofits to help individuals find shelters, including during the height of the pandemic when Newark Penn was shut down for sanitizing.
In one case, Officers Josue Robles and Sean Pfeifer reunited a homeless man at Secaucus Junction with his daughters after he hadn't seen them for 24 years. They also connected him with a caseworker to get housing.
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But the new initiatives, collectively called "Gateway to Hope," go several steps further by providing varied resources, shelter, services and housing options, capitalizing on Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's "The Path Home" program for the city's homeless population. Here are some of the new efforts announced last week:
Nurses, social workers and outreach workers from the city, Rutgers Health, RWJ Barnabas Health, and the nonprofits Bridges and CSPNJ will partner with NJ Transit police to engage people at Newark Penn in need of mental health assistance and substance abuse treatment, or connect them to other services, such as housing.
Funding will be provided for 200 Newark Housing Authority transitional housing units for chronically homeless Newark residents.
The state Department of Community Affairs will provide 100 tenant-based rental assistance vouchers.
A "state-of-the-art 24/7" resource center — named for the late Lt. Gov. Sheila Y. Oliver, of Newark — will open in late 2025 at 10 Commerce Court to provide medical, housing and workforce services, plus showers, laundry, rest lounges, computer stations and food services.
NJ Transit is also receiving $300,000 through a sponsorship package with Prudential Financial, which will help support the "Gateway to Hope" program and include a one-year advertising deal at Newark Penn.
"We're all here together doing something big, which is trying to tackle one of the most intractable problems we have not only in Newark, but internationally, which is homelessness," said Evan Weiss, who sits on NJ Transit's board and is president and CEO of Newark Alliance, a nonprofit focused on economic growth in the city.
"The only way you can do that is with a group like this where people with different backgrounds come together to work, to use all the tools we have at our disposal," Weiss said.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Partnerships emerge to tackle homelessness at NJ Transit's Newark Penn
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