Homelessness Is Outpacing Affordable Housing In New Jersey, Advocates Say

Homelessness is outpacing affordable housing in New Jersey, advocates say.

Nonprofit advocacy group Monarch Housing Associates recently released the results of its 2025 “point in time” count, which was done earlier this year.

According to researchers, there were 13,748 people experiencing homelessness in New Jersey on the night of Jan. 28 – an 8 percent increase from 2024. It’s the highest number recorded since 2014, when there were 13,900 people counted.

The top two reasons cited were each housing-related: “being asked to leave a shared residence” and eviction. Read More: NJ Homeless Totals Keep Climbing; Here Are The Causes, New Report Says

There was a bit of good news, researchers said: 11,753 of those people were at “sheltered locations” such as homeless shelters, transitional housing or hotels – a 7.4 percent increase since last year.

The bad news? There was also a 14.9 percent increase in “unsheltered” people living outside or spending the night in abandoned buildings.

One thing is clear from examining the latest data, several advocates said: more affordable housing is needed in New Jersey – and it’s needed now.

“While our systems are working to connect everyone they can with stable housing, the number of households entering homelessness is unfortunately increasing at a rate that outpaces the expansion of housing opportunities and other supports,” said Katelyn Ravensbergen, a senior associate with Monarch Housing Associates.

Ravensbergen said the situation will only get worse if federal programs that have historically been used to rapidly rehouse families are reduced or eliminated.

• See Related: NJ Nonprofit Will End Fair Housing Program Due To Trump Cuts

Other experts agreed that the latest homeless numbers are a canary in a coal mine when it comes to affordable housing.

“The findings in this year’s point in time count highlight the urgency of our housing challenges and the critical importance of our investments in programs that keep people safely housed,” New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Jacquelyn Suárez said.

“This year’s count reveals the human toll of a worsening housing affordability crisis,” said Michael Callahan, director of the New Jersey Office of Homelessness Prevention.

“With over 13,000 people counted – our highest since 2015 – the data confirms what our communities have long known: homelessness is being driven not just by poverty, but by deep structural inequities, including systemic racism and the dramatic shortage of affordable homes,” Callahan said.

“It is a call to action for bolder, better-targeted investment in prevention, housing and justice,” Callahan urged.

Monarch Housing Associates added the following food for thought in a news release about this year’s point in time count:

PUTTING IT INTO PERSPECTIVE – “The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)’s 2025 Out of Reach data for New Jersey illustrates the scale of the housing affordability crisis. The data shows that to afford a two-bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent (FMR) without paying more than 30% of income on housing costs (the standard for housing affordability), a household would have to earn $83,173 annually, the equivalent of working 2.6 full-time minimum-wage jobs. A two-person household earning this income would fall just barely within the statewide ‘Low-Income’ threshold of 80% of Area Median Income (AMI); if this household earned just $227 more annually, they would no longer be considered ‘Low-Income.’ The FMR for a two-bedroom apartment in New Jersey is $2,079; units at these price points are becoming increasingly difficult to find, with the average two-bedroom renting for between $2,000 and $3,500. The gaps between incomes and market rents that are illustrated by this data continue to widen annually, pushing progressively more households into housing instability. Meanwhile, the stark increase in unsheltered homelessness points to an overburdened shelter system that, in recent months, has consistently operated at more than 90% capacity daily and cannot accommodate the increasing number of households that are pushed into homelessness as a result of unmanageable housing costs.”

END HOMELESSNESS WITH HOUSING – “As we face an impending influx of households into the homeless service ecosystem, it is more crucial than ever that decision-makers in the state and local service system recognize that what works to end homelessness is not forced treatment or incarceration, it is housing. New Jersey must enshrine strategies for ending homelessness that are compassionate, effective, and centered on housing access. This is essential not only as we prepare to meet what is expected to be unprecedented imminent need for housing supports in the present, but to ensure that our housing ecosystem is non-speculative, stable, and supportive in perpetuity, regardless of changes at the federal level. Housing is a fundamental human right; to end homelessness, every policy, strategy, framework, and program must be structured to recognize it as such.”

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