"Most people wind up here for one major reason - lack of money," said Harrigan. "They simply run out of funds. Jobs have cut back all over the place, and really, how many paychecks away are any of us from being homeless?"
The PERC shelter, one of three homeless shelters in Hudson County, sleeps 40 homeless men and women each night and serves up to 160 meals per evening. Local politicians have been debating recently what to do to further help the county's homeless, as the recent recession is believed to have increased their ranks.
In describing the shelter last week, Harrigan explained that most, but not all, of his clients are mental health cases whose illness is not bad enough for permanent hospitalization. Many are recent parolees, and then there are those who are simply down on their luck.
"Many of these people simply need connections," Harrigan said. "Some of the people that I see here are not drug addicts, not mentally ill, not out on parole. They've simply 'fallen through the cracks' and don't know how to get back out. We try our best to help them."
People can receive help from P.E.R.C. in a number of ways.
Six outreach workers fan out to all the local PATH stations and invite anyone sleeping there to come to the shelter. Other times, homeless people simply walk up to the front door, looking for a meal and a warm bed for the night.
But many soon realize that while a meal is easy to come by, a bed is not.
The shelter has 40 beds. On a recent evening when there were only three open beds, nine people called or stopped by looking for a place to sleep. Harrigan said that those calls came from agencies, and the agencies said that the other two shelters, in Hoboken and Jersey City, were full.
That left at least six people on the streets.
According to Harrigan, "This problem had grown immensely. People are here longer these days. It used to be 30 to 60 days or so. Now we have people here for much longer times and a lot of it has to do with problems with receiving the proper documents that the clients need to work."
Harrigan and staff don't just want people to live in the shelter without looking for work. Therefore, he requires clients to obtain the proper legal documentation necessary to get jobs - Social Security card, driver's license, birth certificate. Since it can take time to obtain those documents, people may stay in the shelter longer.
"Think about it," Harrigan said. "If you're sleeping on a bench in a train station, are you going to be concerned with having any official documents?"
The clients must also have a tuberculosis test done within one week of their arrival. This can also take time.
People are allowed to stay in the shelter up to 30 days, although some end up staying longer. PERC gives clients a handout when they come in that lists the rules.
Clients must wake up by 6 a.m., eat breakfast, and must leave by 8 a.m. They may not return until 6 p.m., and they must go to sleep by 10 p.m. Clients must participate in chores at night.
Increasing population
There are three main shelters in Hudson County: the Hoboken Clergy Coalition shelter in Hoboken, St. Lucy's in Jersey City, and PERC. PERC has taken the brunt of the city's homeless population.
Director of Outreach Lourdes Robello has seen an increase in the indigent population.
"We are seeing more and more transients and immigrants," she said. "People that aren't even from Hudson County but have wound up here after arriving from other countries looking for work here and not finding it. Social services agencies and staffing agencies tell them about us." As an example of the increase, according to documents, 23,858 dinners were served to low-income people in the first quarter of 2002.
Said Harrigan, "We house 40 people here, but we feed almost 200 people a day."
With cold weather coming, concern for the well-being of the homeless increases. Last year, a homeless man froze to death in a Jersey City parking lot.
Said Harrigan, "During cold snaps, we allow people to sleep in the dining hall, which technically exceeds our capacity, but we have complete support from Mayor [Brian] Stack. His office has even provided cots and blankets to us."
Stack, a lifelong resident of the city, "is a tremendous supporter", according to Harrigan. "Also, the Union City police are great in anything we call them for," he said. "They are obviously thoroughly trained to handle this type of population. I have never seen anything quite like it and I've been doing this for a long time. I have seen officers talk very angry people into leaving the shelter without any violence. No one has ever been forcibly removed from this building."
But funding is a constant problem.
"All of our services are free," said Harrigan. "We serve breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week, 365 days a year, and that isn't cheap and takes money. There's not a lot to go around."
According to Susan Wagner-Glaser, Director of Finance for PERC, "Fifty percent of our funding comes from 'contract income' we get from contracts we have with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to utilize our outreach program in their facilities. About 48 percent comes from various state and federal funding and about 2 to 3 percent comes from private donations, a number which we would, of course, love to see increase."
One resident, Raymond Fields, who is mentally retarded and cannot work, has been coming for more than 10 years.
"I come on Mondays for dinner," Fields. "They treat me nice here."
"Ray Fields is one of the reasons I keep doing this job," said Harrigan. "Anyone seeing him now would think he is in bad shape, but he is 100 percent better than when we found him. He was sleeping on the street."
Said Robello, "I keep coming back to this place because I have personal hope that I will help someone."
What should be done?
When asked how to alleviate the county's homeless problem, Harrigan said, "The problem isn't one thing; it's a multitude. There is no one single fix that would alleviate the problem. For instance, Union County has no programs for at-risk youth under 21. If they come here, we have to send them to Covenant House (in New York City)."
Building more shelters might lessen the burden for now, but, said Harrigan, "in the long term, it wouldn't really do anything. It would be a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Basically, more services are needed in Hudson County."
To contact the PERC shelter regarding donations or other matters, call (201) 348-8150 or come to the front door: 111 37th St., Union City.
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