[Steve] So yeah. This is my bed.
[Steve] I… The seats, like I said, they fold down here
and so I put a table on the bottom, on top of the seats,
and then I put about three sleeping bags on top of that.
[Steve] And then I have the zero-rated sleeping bag for the wintertime.
[Steve] And… Yeah, I crawl in there and yeah, typically I'm toasty warm.
[Steve] I've got a space heater here, a butane, propane heater.
[Steve] Yeah. You really don't need a whole lot, you know, to survive.
[Steve] You just need your basics.
[Steve] And once you have those, you know, you can be happy. As long as you're happy on the inside.
[Steve] So, when the government tries to fit you in this…
in this expensive box where you've got to pay so much money to survive,
[Steve] I think they're taking your freedoms away because you don't need all that.
[Steve] It fits all my needs
and I'm completely content,
you know, just to stay here, I really don't need anything else.
US HOMELESS THE FIGHT FOR EQUALITY
[Steve] Let’s turn around.
[Steve] If we do this we are not getting spotted.
[Steve] Well, it’s kind of a sad situation, sad feeling here.
[Steve] This was a thriving community of homeless people.
[Steve] And everybody had their little area with their tents.
[Steve] And there were bigger tents. There were ten-man-tents.
[Steve] Some were even bigger than ten-man-tents.
[Steve] And they had heat in the winter. They had enough food.
TENT CITY, 2014
[Steve] They had all the clothes that they needed.
[Steve] They had all their basic needs met.
[Steve] It saves the taxpayer about $1,000,000 a year every year we are here.
[Steve] If they were to house, the county, the government was to house these people in hotels
like they normally did, it would have it would have cost the county $1,000,000 a year to house the people.
TENT CITY, 2014
[Steve] Yeah, this camp here in these woods,
it grew to about 122 people at the peak.
[Steve] I started it… Pretty much from the get go, I moved in,
realizing that, I needed to be here to protect the homeless from the outside
and also to manage the camp, make sure that things were organized.
[Steve] We had, you know, place to put our garbage,
you know, a place for a bathroom.
[Steve] And, you know, just the basics. And the people were happy.
[Steve] The people that lived here were very happy.
[Steve] Yeah. This is public property. It belongs to the public.
[Steve] You know, it should have been accessible to the people.
[Steve] But what was happening here was the media, the press were coming down here
and they were showing this, you know, to the world, basically.
[Steve] And what was happening is the township didn't like the publicity,
LAKEWOOD 2014 didn't like the light shown on Lakewood.
[Steve] So they did what they could to close this place down.
TENT CITY, 2014
[Steve] So it closed down on July 3rd, 2014.
[Steve] Day before 4th of July, Independence Day.
[Steve] They shut this camp down and told everybody they had to leave.
[Steve] And that was the last day of this beautiful camp.
[Steve] Yeah, we’re heading down to the camp, which I call the senior camp.
[Steve] Most of the people there are seniors over 55.
[Steve] And we'll drop off a few things to the camp.
[Reporter] And how many years you've been homeless?
[James] A matter of a couple of years. I've been living in sheds and boardwalks.
[Man] I constantly get work ??? I go to Home Depot and Lowe's and tell them what a great carpenter I am and I always get hired.
[James] And the economy the way it is, people don't have money to spend.
[James] All the contractors are cutting the prices.
[James] So there's no profit in it. And it's tough to get a job right now.
[Reporter] Did things get worse this year in general? How do you feel?
[James] Definitely got worse because of the economy.
[James] When I was in Florida and some lady had given me her vehicle,
and she said, I got to get it back. I said: How am I going to get it back?
[James] She said, Bring it here. I said, It cost me $1,000 in gasoline to get back.
[James] Minus 1000 dollars. I handed her back a car.
[James] If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn't have any.
[James] But I never lost my faith.
[James] A couple of times I questioned it.
[James] But I still have faith in the Lord. And in this guy right here. This guy right here.
[James] I was just watching it. And everything that Donald Trump did for this country, and everybody hates him.
[James] And that is all the Democrats. It’s wrong. It's just wrong.
[James] All these aliens, millions coming into the country.
[James] They shouldn't be here. Gather ‘em all up and ship them out, man.
[James] But that's not going to happen as long as there's a Democrat in the White House.
[James] Commander in chief. He doesn't even know his own name sometimes.
[James] He flies around on Air Force One. What a joke!
[Steve] People help me out. This truck right here is a major example
how people, you know, can be very generous and helpful.
[Steve] Somebody met me at the dealership and they gave me this truck.
[Steve] It's a 2022 and it's brand new, and they just gave it to me.
[Steve] So this is the kind of stuff I need to continue to do what I do for the homeless and the poor of this area.
[Steve] Yeah, every day is busy, especially this time of year.
[Steve] It's, you know, the holiday, Christmas season.
[Steve] And I'm running all day long. From the time I wake up to the time I go to bed, which is late,
I'm continually doing something, you know, busy either picking up donations
to bring out to the poor and the homeless,
or I'm working in the camps, sprucing up a tent or putting up a tent,
bringing down heaters or whatever is needed.
[Steve] I help out around… around 50 homeless, between Ocean and Monmouth County.
[Steve] It's around 50 people.
[Steve] So Victoria here was sleeping on the bench outside of the library.
[Steve] There was no cushion on this bench at all.
[Steve] This was a hard bench and she was there for weeks,
you know, sleeping on this bench.
[Victoria, Homeless] Oh, it was horrible. Ugh. So…
[Reporter] And there is no shelter you can go to, right?
[Victoria] Just not any in this county
[Steve] We’re going to the old community centre, which was there for decades in Lakewood,
and then they made it into a shelter, at least at nighttime.
[Steve] So the homeless from the area would come down to the community centre and sleep at night.
[Steve] It seemed like about, oh, maybe six months.
[Steve] They closed it down, they closed down the shelter, and then they tore down the building altogether.
[Steve] Yeah. So we've picked up from the one of the drop-off locations.
[Steve] I have about ten people that have said that it's okay to use their house as a drop off location.
[Steve] So there's centrally located in different areas around here.
[Steve] So people from that area can go and drop things off at that house.
[Steve] And I go around and once or twice a week I go around and I pick up at that house.
[Steve] Then, you know, I'd give to the homeless in their camps.
[Steve] Or I do a program twice a week in the town square in Lakewood
where I give out to the homeless and the poor there in Lakewood.
LAKEWOOD, NEW JERSEY
[Steve] Somebody… Here.
[Steve] With the cost of living right now, the cost of housing, with inflation going up, everything is very expensive.
[Steve] And there's just a lot of people can't afford the cost of housing and the cost of necessities
on top of that - food, clothing and whatever, very, very difficult for a lot of people.
[Steve] Happy New Year to you also. [Woman] You deserve it. He’s a good man.
[Woman] Very good man. [Steve] God bless you, thank you.
[Woman] And I thank you for everything that you do for the community.
[Steve] Yeah, it's my pleasure. Thank you.
[Woman] Yes. I really thank from the bottom of my heart
[Mary Ellen, Local Resident] He’s the greatest.
[Mary] My name is Mary, and I'm not camera shy. And he’s the greatest.
[Steve] You’re a wonderful person too. [Mary] He’s the greatest, he’s the greatest.
[Steve] Without a doubt, the cost of living going up this year, inflation.
[Steve] I've seen an increase in people calling me, asking me for a place to stay,
needing a tent. I've seen an increase in that. I've seen an increase in people coming out to the town square here
to see if they can get something that they need.
[Steve] Yeah, it's really wonderful how the broader community is,
you know, contributing to this program here.
[Voice] Thanks again!
[Steve] Oh. Oh, that's a… Hold on… [Paula] It’s me!
[Steve] Hey! I tried to call you yesterday. I couldn't get ahold of you.
[Paula] That's my blessing right there. Yesterday. No money down for this..
[Steve] Really? That's yours, huh? Wow, that's beautiful.
[Paula] What do we say? How do you go to a car dealer with no money?
[Paula] I want to say: Cause I’m going with God!
[Paula] Let me show you what I have: my vouicher, my housing voucher.
[Steve] Oh, okay. Oh. [Paula] I have Section 8 Voucher.
[Paula] It’s LTRAP , yeah.
[Steve] Yeah, see, the problem is, they give this, they put you on the list
but it’s almost impossible to find the house.
[Steve] Are you good? How you been? [Man] Good, good. Good.
[Paula] I had a voucher over the summer and I still wasn't able to find housing
because there's no affordable housing in Lakewood.
[Steve] Oh I know.
[Mike McNeal, Executive Director, STEPS (Solutions to End Poverty Soon)]
[Mike] At the rate that we're going now,
I can't... in a few years, I can't imagine what's going to happen.
[Mike] I mean, just look at the court records of how many people are going through there, being evicted.
[Mike] Last year, if you remember, they put out a thousand vouchers
just for the... the homeless throughout the state of New Jersey.
[Mike] We got nine of those vouchers here.
[Mike] The problem comes in is that finding a place for them at the rate that the vouchers are..
[Mike] Now that... that's a crime, man.
[Mike] You know like, as high as the rent is and the vouchers are way down here, and it doesn't match.
[Mike] So, it looks like you're doing a great job by putting out vouchers.
[Mike] But the people can't get in the houses because the vouchers won't allow them to get there.
[Paula] This is considered the United States of America. I renamed them the Divided States of America.
[Paula] And unfortunately, the United States is still segregating. Racism still exists.
[Steve] Yeah, the African-American population was 12%...
[Paula] Now, it's less than 1%.
[Steve] Now, it’s less than 1%! Right.
[Steve] 20 years later, because of the government funded gentrification,
you know, illegal government-funded… And it’s the politicians that are allowing this,
and the government agencies that are allowing this.
[Steve] And it's a major illegal, you know…
[Steve] It's a major problem in America.
[Mike] It's it's sad times. And it's going to get...
[Mike] It's going to get worse unless the governor, you know, steps in
and put a moratorium on this higher raising rent,
because this is steep right now.
[Mike] You know, sooner or later, you got to start dealing with with the families and they're coming.
[Steve] People said there are givers and there are takers and it's, you know, pretty true.
[Steve] Some people are just natural givers and want to give and go the extra mile and,
you know, want to help and feel good about it.
[Steve] And there are some people that are, you know,
takers that you would like to, you know, take advantage or whatever.
[Steve] Life's a balance. You know, there's just takes all kinds to make the world go round.
[Steve] That's going to be nice and warm, for sure.
[Steve] I think it's going to rain all night. Yeah, I think that says 100% per cent
all night and the winds are going to pick up.
[Steve] It's about 15 miles an hour now. It's going to pick up to about 50, the forecast says.
[Steve] So, yeah, we really got to get this thing ready for…
[Steve] There’s a new fellow coming down into the camp tonight.
[Steve] He called from the hospital and he's got to leave the hospital tonight.
[Steve] And… so his name is Angelo.
[Steve] And so we're going to be picking him up in about an hour from the hospital and in one of the neighboring towns.
[Steve] Nice to meet you, Angelo. [Angelo] Hello.
[Steve] Did you have something to eat? Yeah? We can stop at Burger King if you want. Sounds good?
[Angelo] Yeah. [Steve] Yeah. All right. We’ll stop at Burger King, yeah.
[Steve] Ok… [Employee] Ok, please.
[Steve] All right. Thank you.
[Employee] How's Vera doing?
[Steve] Vera… You know, she went to the hospital. You heard, right?
[Employee] Yeah, I heard the tree fell on her.
[Steve] Yeah, that's why I deard. So I haven't seen or heard from her since then. So you know…
[Steve] The new fellow, Angelo, he says that he's cold. You know,
with the last night, it was relatively warm, but the temperature's dropping.
[Steve] And so he's getting cold. So we’ll hook up a propane heater for him.
[Reporter] And how cold is gonna be tonight?
[Steve] Oh, I think it's they say eight degrees.
[Steve] And then with the wind chill factor like ten below zero.
[Steve] Wind chill. So yeah, yeah.
[Steve] Angelo will definitely need heat tonight or he'll... might just freeze to death.
[Angelo, Homeless]I think in some ways the world is getting colder, people colder towards each other.
[Angelo] In some ways, people are more distracted with all the distractions we have of the age these days.
[Angelo] But I think as things get worse with our economy and everything,
I think maybe people will start getting closer.
[Angelo] Sometimes it takes a crisis to bring people closer together
because people are like, well, it's not in my backyard. It's not happening to me.
[Angelo] So they maybe sometimes are short sighted and only think of themselves.
[Angelo] If you're rich people, a lot of people will kiss your butt.
[Angelo] But if you're poor, people, some people will step over you.
[Angelo] I think people do things sometimes only if it benefits them.
[Angelo] With some people, not everybody.
[Angelo] I mean, there are some wonderful people out there that will surprise you,
you know, but there's no greater satisfaction than helping out your brother, helping out your fellow man.
[Angelo] The harder times reveal people's true character. Sometimes I think.
[Steve] It's just like clothing. The best way to stay warm is to layer.
[Steve] So we layer the tents over a couple of times with tarps
and it really holds in the heat nice.
[Steve] Hey Angelo. [Angelo] Yeah?
[Steve] All right, I’m coming in. [Angelo] Okay.
[Steve] I’ve got something for you.
[Steve] Great, yeah. Sure there’s a lot of goodies in there.
[Angelo] Yeah!
[Steve] I think there might even be a gift card in there for $30 for Wawa.
[Angelo] Oh, wo… That's beautiful, thanks!
[Steve] Here's a hat for you. Share some hats with the other guys..
[Angelo] This is great. You know, you really… you don't need a lot in life.
[Steve] Yeah, it's a shame that they try to force people into this expensive box,
you know, that people got to pay all kind of money to survive…
[Angelo] Consumerism and all of that.
[Steve] Yeah. It’s making somebody wealthy but
it's not the freedom of America, you know?
[Angelo] Well, you know, if you're really, really rich, are you really free?
[Angelo] Because you got to watch who your friends are.
[Angelo] You got to watch who's going to sue you.
[Steve] Right! Exactly. [Angelo] You know…
[Steve] You know, the Bible says don't ask for too much.
[Steve] You know, pray for that you don't have too little.
[Steve] You know, just have enough to survive. And, you know, that's the best place to be in, yeah.
[Steve] Okay, beautiful, all right. I promise to see you a little later on today.
[Angelo] Okay. [Steve] Okay, yup.
[Steve] Okay, so, yeah, this is where Steve and Vera have been camped.
[Steve] They were closing down this camp over here. The township was
[Steve] Steve and Vera asked for a tent, I gave them a small tent
that they could hide back here because if just tried this camp back here before
and they've been kicked out of these woods,
it's owned by the county, it's public property.
[Steve] Steve and Vera weren't doing anything wrong.
[Steve] They're very clean and very neat, you know, with their camp.
[Steve] But they they were kicked out, so they weren't discovered.
[Steve] But it looks like a tree.
[Steve] Maybe the last storm that we had a few days ago
fell on their tents and a branch hit Vera
while she was in the tent and fractured her hip.
[Steve] So she is in the hospital right now, yeah, I know, she must be in pain.
[Steve] And it's a shame, you know, it's a terrible shame, the crime
that there is no shelter for them to go to,
you know, that they have to sleep out in the woods.
[Steve] And it is the kind of stuff that can happen when you sleep out in the woods.
[Steve, Homeless] That tree right there, the root. See it?
[Steve] Yeah, I see it.
[Steve, Homeless] See the tree? [Steve] Yeah.
[Steve, Homeless] We were sleeping, me and my girlfriend Vera,
and three in the morning, the tree, she's laying right here on her hip,
facing that way. And I face that way.
[Steve, Homeless] The tree split, came right out of the ground.
[Steve, Homeless] Roof. Oh, thinking of the water came over.
[Steve] Oh, yeah. It would've killed you, yeah.
[Steve, Homeless] And it came down and hit right here.
[Steve, Homeless] Right here. And there's a hole right here that pulled us up.
[Steve, Homeless] It hit there when that went down and the pressure made it snap on her head.
[Steve, Homeless] And one hand and snap went in the front like that. And yeah.
[Reporter] And if any wish would come through, what would be your top?
[Steve, Homeless] Well, right now — Vera gets well.
[Steve, Homeless] Only Vera get well. We'll take you to her.
[Steve] Beautiful. Yeah, that's beautiful.
[Angelo, Homeless] Thank you, guys. Merry Christmas everyone.
[Steve] Merry Christmas Steve. God bless you.
[Steve] His first wish is for somebody else. That's beautiful.
[Steve] All right, that's. That's as nice as it gets.
[Steve] You know, you when you want somebody else to be blessed.
[Steve] And not yourself. That's beautiful.
[Steve] You know what's left of it.
[Steve] That's a little memorial right there in the corner.
[Steve] See the flowers? Yeah. So there was a homeless couple.
[Steve] It was Adam and Cathy. They were staying in this whole hotel here.
[Steve] I put them up in this hotel.
[Steve] There was a fire in a set of woods near here where they were living.
[Steve] They were living in the woods.
[Steve] And the it was in the springtime and the wind was blowing hard
and the woods caught on fire.
[Steve] But anybody staying back there would have been killed in that fire.
[Steve] So I put Adam and Kathy up in this hotel
for a little bit after the fire, since their stuff was all burned up.
[Steve] And Kathy had gone out to the store and she was coming back
and some lady in a Mercedes didn't see her crossing the road
and hit her and killed her.
[Steve] So a very sad, very sweet couple.
[Steve] And it was a hard worker working almost every day to try to make ends meet,
you know, try to feed them and, you know, give them the basic necessities.
[Steve] Yeah. But it's, you know, one of the tragic,
you know, situations with the homeless,
you know, most of them die an early death.
[Steve] Hi, how are you?
[Angelica] Good, I’m Angelica. We met a long time ago
[Steve] All these years. 20 years at least.
[Woman] Yeah. Oh, my God.
[Woman] How are you doing?
[Steve] Oh, I'm doing good. How have you been?
[Angelica] So. Good evening. My name is Angelica.
[Angelica] I'm an advocate and social worker here in Ocean County,
and I'm very happy to be here tonight.
[Angelica] This is a very important thing to honor those homeless lives
that have been lost over the years.
[Steve] Okay, thank you Angelica
[Steve] It's an honor to be here to represent the homeless of Ocean County
[Steve] Heavenly Father, we thank you again for all that that was done for us.
[Steve] Father, we thank you for this time tonight where we have gathered together to honor
the lives of those that have passed in Ocean County this year.
[Brian, Former Homeless] I was homeless for two years, beginning in the pandemic,
when I was forced out of my mom's house by my older cousins
[Brian] I had jobs that were hard to get to.
[Brian] I worked for a financial services company while being homeless
and pretty much spent $800 on Ubers a month just to get there.
[Brian] They ended up helping me by my first car, the one I slept in.
[Brian] I ended up losing that same job because I was falling asleep at my desk
because of a lack of sleep. I was getting in the car.
[Steve] Yeah, we're heading over to the code blue.
[Steve] That's something that Governor Christie instituted this code blue,
which means that when the temperatures drop below a certain temperature, which is 35,
the people that are homeless can go into these warming centers.
[Steve] So right now, Ocean County, we have three of these warming centers.
[Steve] So we're headed over there now
to... I've never been inside of the warming center yet.
[Steve] You know, I know the people that go there, but I haven't been inside myself,
so... we're going to check it out.
[Steve] Hey, how you doing?
Good, good. How are you doing?
[Steve] Great. Yeah...
[Steve] Yeah, we have some stuff to drop off. This…
[Man] Oh, OK-OK-OK.
[Steve] They’re sleeping already?
[Man] Most of them are.
[Steve] Ah, OK, all right.
[Steve] Oh, that's good, yeah.
[Steve] As long as you got a warm place to sleep, that's a big one.
[Man] Yeah... I need a blanket.
[Steve] Oh... Yeah, I don't know if I've got one with me. I'll check, OK?
[Man] Yes, sir!
[Steve] OK, yeah. I'll be at the square tomorrow.
[Steve] But I'll check... [Man] Two o'clock!
[Steve] Two o'clock, yep. Let me check if I got some blankets.
[Steve] Yeah, OK... good. Think I might have some.
[Steve] You know, we'll give them these presents here.
[Steve] Let me open up this, and then we will give them one of those bags
and see if we can find some blankets back here.
[Steve] One more, and it’ll be four.
[Steve] Yes, see… There. I’ll get another four myself.
[Reporter] And what if it’s closed? Like, what…
[Steve] Well, people either live in a tent or they find some alternative.
[Steve Brigham, Minister]
[Steve] Um… You know, Lakewood allows the homeless to sleep on porches.
[Steve] There is one church or…
two churches that they frequent downtown and sleep on the porches of the church.
[Steve] The one church put up a fence all the way around the church,
you know, to keep the homeless out.
[Steve] Yeah, so they can't... they can't use that church anymore,
to sleep on their porch.
[Steve] And so, they were in the alleyway right next to the church.
[Steve] Once the church put up the fence,
and the police kicked them out of the alleyway,
and there was probably about 8 to 10 on an average night sleeping in the alleyway.
[Steve] The township would come and take all their blankets away.
[Steve] About once or twice a week they would send the township maintenance crew down
with a garbage truck, and they would just throw away all the blankets.
[Steve] And so it made it very difficult for them to stay warm.
[Steve] So, let me go talk to these… they’re looking at me.
[Steve] Wonder what's going on…
[Steve] Can't believe you guys are here! Yeah...
[Man] I’m here!
[Steve] You’re here. I know you're tough, yeah? Mucho strong!
[Man] Yeah!
[Steve] Real nice one... So this is a coat.
[Steve] Well, here's a coat.
[Steve] Where's the... You left them in here?
[Steve] Yeah. Good, yeah? OK, fantastic. OK, guys...
[Man] I get that one too?
[Man] Is that good? [Steve] Yeah
[Steve] OK, you're welcome. Yeah, my pleasure.
[Steve] OK, here's one more blanket down there.
[Steve] OK... All right, guys – have a good night.
[Steve] You know, we’re supposed to be 'the Land of the Free' and have freedoms,
but, you know…
[Steve] Our freedoms are being taken away
or we're not allowed to have these freedoms
because of probably some economic reasons.
[Steve] Somebody wants to make some money off of housing.
[Steve] And so the politicians create these laws to restrict housing,
make, you know, an artificial-type housing system when,
you know, we just need a good free market
where people can afford a small home on a small piece of property
and only pay three or $400 a month.
[Steve] It can happen.
[Steve] You know, we can do that. And so, but it's again...
the politics that are restricting something like that.
[Steve] And it's wrong. It's not American. So we need to change that.
[Steve] We need to go back, we need to go back to American fundamentals.
[Steve] OK. Merry Christmas, everybody...
[Steve] Feliz navidad!
[Steve] We celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, today.
[Steve] Born in a manger, humble and homeless himself.
[Steve] Heavenly Father, we thank you today
for another day that thou hath given us with the breath of life,
another day to enjoy the beauty and wonder of thy great creation.
[Steve] Father, we just are especially thankful of this day,
this particular day where we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
who came to redeem us from our sins.
[Steve] Again, we ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior, Amen... and amen.
[Man] Mashed potatoes are good!
[Woman] This one? [Man] Yeah.
[Steve] Jesus came to be merciful.
[Steve] You know, He told the Pharisees, He says, you know... "You follow every little bit of the Law.
[Steve] But the way to your measures of the Law, the more important parts of the Law –
mercy, compassion, and love – you neglect."
[Steve] So he said: "Your priorities are out of place,"
you know... You focus on the small things,
but the big things you don't focus on,
the real important things you don't focus on, like mercy and love.
[Steve] So Jesus saw it, you know, again, he didn't just teach us in words.
[Steve] He taught us in examples.
[Steve] OK, no pushing. OK-OK. All right. What is Christmas for? So.... All right, here you go. OK...
[Woman] Say "thank you"! [Child] Thank you...
[Steve] OK, you're welcome. God bless you. Merry Christmas.
[Steve] I was raised in a family that was, you know, very Christian.
[Steve] My mother was a strong Christian woman.
[Steve] She would, you know teach us from the Bible all the time, read from us from the Bible.
[Steve] And so I grew up, you know, it was infused into me from my mother.
[Man] Here you go! Let me see it. Nice!
[Child] Thank you! [Man] Nice!
[Marisol, Local Resident] Mister Steve! God bless you!
[Steve] God bless YOU!
[Marisol] We can’t be speakers because gotta be doers!
[Steve] Amen, amen.
[Marisol] Because, you know, this is like…
[Marisol] This is where rubber meets the road.
[Steve] Rubber meets the road, yeah?
[Marisol] Oh, no… People don’t realise how deep America is
[Marisol] What is this kind of immorality happening in our nation?
[Marisol] People taking back like, "oh, it's OK"...
[Marisol] I'm from Jurassic times? I don't think so!
[Marisol] I have my values.
[Marisol] I know who I am. I was born a woman and I will stay a woman, OK?
[Marisol] And if you are a man, you were born a man, you stay a man.
[Marisol] You don't allow that in a society.
[Marisol] You're not gonna step over my boundaries and my rules.
[Marisol] And I have to yield to your... Nuh-uh, I don't think so.
[Marisol] I do not think so, and I'm not gonna go with it.
[Marisol] God made us either a man or a woman.
[Marisol] Because Satan is out there deceiving the society, deceiving the young people.
[Marisol] They have no morality, they have no values.
[Marisol] They think everything is OK.
[Marisol] And now we have guidelines to abide with.
[Marisol] And even our government is so corrupt that they're letting society fall apart.
[Marisol] And that's how Rome, OK? Rome... History repeats itself.
[Marisol] He brokered with them then, but immorality was so big, the judgment came to it!
[Steve] You know, I think the best gift for Christmas or any time of the year is to be able to give.
[Steve] It just... it just feels so good to be able to give to other people, you know.
[Steve] So it's a blessing. You get a good feeling inside when you give to other people.
[Steve] So yeah, I do it, you know, every time I do this, we do it for 21 years,
and every time I do it, I get a good feeling, and you know, it's just all I need.
[Steve] Oooh… We’re stuck. We’re stuck, we’re stuck…
[Voice] For real?
[Steve] We’re stuck until we put it into four-wheel drive.
[Steve] Thank goodness we’re four-wheel drive,
or we would be there all day long.
[Steve] Hey, James. Do you sing? How’s your voice?
[James] The weather outside is frightful…
[Steve] Can you sing? How’s your voice? Yeah? You wanna join us?
[Steve] You’re ready? OK… On the count of three. One, two, three…
[Song] Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way
[Song] Oh, what fun it is to ride In a one-horse open sleigh, hey
[Song] Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way
[Song] Oh, what fun it is to ride In a one-horse open sleigh
[Steve] Hey! All right, we did good.
[Steve] Yeah, that brought us… You know, we got the Christmas spirit now.
[James] Who's got a cigarette for me? I’m f***** dying here!
[Steve] Oh, no-no-no…
[Steve] Hey, it Christmas. You can’t cuss on Christmas, come on!
[James] See what we got here…
[James] 'Only you can build your future!'
[Steve] I guess… 'You’re the master of your own destiny.' I guess that’s the same thing.
[Steve] Angelo who is in the camp, he went to Harvard for pre-law.
[Steve] Yeah, he went to the most prestigious school in America, he went to Harvard.
[Steve] So, you know… It just so that anybody can be in these camps here.
[Steve] And… We got people that had been millionaires in the past, you know.
[Steve] Had big businesses. Different things can throw you over the edge.
[Steve] So… People shouldn’t be so judgmental about the homeless
because it could happen to almost anybody.
[Voice] It seems like they’re coming this way.
[Voice] See how they’re hovering.
[Voice] It means the pilot’s looking down this way.
[Voice] See how they angle?
[Steve] These guys are circling around us here.
[Steve] We’ve got a nice camp here. Everything’s clean. Everything’s orderly.
[Steve] We’re just afraid this guy is circling around here with a helicopter.
[Steve] He’s definitely circling a lot around us, tumbling around.
[Steve] Probably taking pictures or whatever.
[Steve] No government money, we’re living simple, living, you know, living free.
[Steve] Been doing the right thing. -
[Victoria] The best thing we can do…
[Steve] And the government wants to shove you into a box,
and you gotta jump through their hoops, you know.
[Steve] Be their little servant.
[Victoria] He’s still going around!
[Steve] I don't know. It's hard to tell if it was police or what.
[Steve] Yeah… Very, very disturbing, that's for sure.
[Homeless] And we still got two weeks till...
[Homeless] Yeah, from the time they give us notice.
[Steve] Well, that's, that's normally what they do.
[Steve] That's not written in stone that they’ve got to do that. You know, it's just…
They gotta give us a little time, right?
[Steve] I would think so… Yeah… If they have a little bit of a heart.
[Steve] Yeah. Yeah, it's only a matter of time. The helicopter came around today,
flew around a couple of times, stayed stationary on an angle over here, you know,
to look down at the camp
[Steve] So he was definitely up there to look at us. So we'll see what happens.
[Man] Right. Later, Steve. [Steve] Yeah, OK. You’re going?
[Man] See you around. [Steve] See you later!
[Steve] If the township found out that we’re back there,
then it wasn’t long after that that the police sends a tractor down there to take pictures of us,
and then the police came down, you know,
came down for a couple of different reasons to check on us.
[Steve] Yeah, then they closed this gate here on us,
so we couldn’t access the power lines here.
[Steve] I guess they figured that there was no other way to get under the power lines.
[Steve] They might’ve figured that if they shut the gate we couldn’t use an automobile to get in and out,
that it would be too difficult, and people would leave… leave out of there.
[Steve] But… Yeah, we did find this other route to come in,
so… It’s a difficult route, but, you know, at least it’s a way to bring in materials,
bring in things that they need for now:
water, different supplies, food. Things like that.
[Steve] To try and bring in supplies for that whole camp by hand would be almost impossible.
[Steve] So at least we found an alternative route.
[Steve] We’re not using government resources back there.
[Steve] You know, we’re saving the government money.
[Steve] You would think maybe the government would, you know,
try to make things easier for us since we’re saving them money,
but that’s not the case.
[Steve] If I didn’t have a good truck with 4-wheel drive,
I couldn’t… couldn’t go in there by the new way. Yeah, it’s too rough.
[Steve] Personally, I can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t leave that open.
[Steve] You know, I just don’t… don’t understand that.
[Lisa] Personally, I think the government needs to help all these homeless people.
...people. Yeah, I know.
[Lisa] Instead of sending money over to Ukraine and all those other countries,
worry about your own country.
[Lisa] My name’s Lisa. - Lisa?
[Steve] Yeah, she’s taking care of the chicks. You gotta see the chicks.
[Steve] You wanna show us the chicks? [Lisa] Sure. Come on down.
[Steve] Yeah, these are beautiful chicks.
[Steve] So they’re, like, chick control.
[Steve] They’re just about ready to go outside and start the job of collecting chicks,
then the little ways down the road… Hopefully most of them are female, so they’ll start laying eggs for us.
[Lisa] There they all are.
[Lisa] Notails are the males. [Voice] Ah, OK!
[Lisa] This is Snowflake.
[Lisa] And the one that’s on the box over there, that’s Jack. He's a male.
[Lisa] These are my babies. This is what keeps me going.
[Lisa] Stay right here.
[Lisa] It’s just a sad situation. It makes me cry.
[Lisa] There are little kids that are homeless,
but I’m finding out they’re taking kids and selling them for sex.
[Lisa] Really? Come on now.
[Lisa] Life is too short, people. Too short.
[Lisa] And it’s sad, it makes me wanna cry. All the time. I’m sorry...
[Lisa] I just wish we had a president that cared.
[Lisa] But we don’t have a president that cares.
[Lisa] You know… But, um...
[Lisa] It’s just a sad world.
[Lisa] I wish people would wake up and see what Joe Biden is doing to us.
[Victoria, Homeless] And, of course, now that I hear that he’s with China…
[Victoria] From what I hear, we’re gonna be taking over in about probably a year of two.
[Victoria] And Trump, let me tell you… He was an idiot from the day we took… he took power.
[Victoria] He was all about 'eh, I was over to see that boy in the'…
[Victoria] What was it, North Korea? Whatever.
[Victoria] And, 'oh, me and him are good friends' and everything… And he was…
[Victoria] Two weeks later he was shooting missiles in the air.
[Victoria] I mean, he doesn’t care about us.
[Victoria] Oh, no… [Steve] You’re gonna get shoes. Shoes...
[Victoria] Oh my goodness… [Steve] Yeah...
[Victoria] Oh, I like that… [Steve] You like those?
[Victoria] Oh, those are like sneakers. [Steve] Yeah!
[Victoria] Oh, they are… Can I have them?
[Steve] Yes, certainly. Wear ‘em, they’re yours!
[Victoria] Oh God! This is wonderful, Steve!
[Steve] So, we’ve got… One girl moved in last night, yesterday.
[Steve] And then we’ve got four people moving in in about 4 days,
[Steve] and then there’s another 2 people that might have to move in, so it’s… it’s growing.
[Steve] It’s right around 18 right now, so it’ll be over 20, you know, in a week.
[Steve] Yes, she was in the Ocean County Mall with no place to go, so somebody has given her my number.
[Steve] It was very chilly last night. Sitting outside would have been…
[Maryellen, Homeless] I had no place to go, nobody would help me.
[Maryellen] I called social services, I did all kinds of stuff,
made 15,000 phone calls, and nobody would help me.
[Maryellen] Before that, I was at a motel. They did put me up in a motel for a little while,
but they wouldn’t extend my motel stay.
[Maryellen] And then I was out in the streets again.
[Maryellen] So then I had no place to stay, and that was the very first day I was actually out on the street
where I had no place to go, and then he helped me.
[Maryellen] I mean, I’m old, but I don’t want to live by myself somewhere.
[Maryellen] This is my biggest things – I didn’t want to be in the woods by myself, you know?
[Maryellen] And be scared… Here I have… You know,
there’s people here, who are so nice, and everybody’s kind to me here.
[Maryellen] And… this is a great, you know… It’s a good thing to have.
[Maryellen] At least you have this, you know?
[Steve] Yeah, we’re very vulnerable and susceptible to the whims of the government.
[Steve] They can come in here and shut this down for, you know,
for any reason they wanna dream up and create.
[Steve] Cause it’s a good camp, good people, they take their garbage and they bag it up,
then I take it out of here.
[Steve] It’s a clean camp, it’s an orderly camp, it’s… it’s a good camp and good people.
[Steve] So, you know, there should be camps like this around America.
[Steve] If people can’t afford housing, this gives them freedom, it gives them community,
it gives them all kinds of aspects that they need as an individual.
[Steve] We’re complicated beings, we need a complicated type system to live in.
[Homeless] My breakfast skillet. Gotta have her ready for the morning.
[Steve] These tall pine trees, the straight ones, these aren’t native to this area.
[Steve] Rockefeller had all these straight pine trees imported and planted in this area here.
[Steve] Yes, so we’re in Ocean County Park, that’s also called Rockefeller Park.
[Steve] This used to be a J.D. Rockefeller’s state. You know...
he was normally stationed in New York and then, when he decided to retire,
he lived here, I think for about 20 years.
[Steve] Lakewood was an extremely prosperous town.
[Steve] It was 'a playground of the rich and famous,' as they would say.
[Steve] A lot of the billionaires lived in Lakewood around the turn of the century, the 1900.
[Steve] You know.. It's a very rich and famous,
the richest man that ever lived in the history of the world lived here,
and now it’s one of the poorest towns in the area.
[Steve] In fact, I think it’s considered the poorest town in Ocean County right now.
[Steve] We are on route to the main camp, but
there’s a couple, a man and a woman who are living in one of these abandoned buildings right her, abandoned houses.
[Steve] There’s about 4 of them in a row right here,
and they’re spending the nights in one of these houses.
[Steve] So they call me every so often for some water and propane.
[Steve] They got a small propane heater that they put in a room to stay warm,
and they have a small propare stove that they used to cook on.
[Steve] You know, I get a lot of calls from people that are in adverse situations:
that are living in their car, that are either living in somebody’s house under a couch,
or their basement, or living in some adverse condition, you know? That need some help.
[Steve] The property owners, if they find out, that people are living in these houses…
[Steve] I’m sure they’d be kicked out.
[Steve] So they gotta be very quiet, they gotta leave early in the morning, come back late at night.
[Steve] And they can’t have any lights on that would shine through a window or anything like that.
[Steve] They gotta stay low-key, but everybody has a right to have a place to lay their head.
[Steve] That’s a basic human right.
[Steve] And so, you know, the problem is, the government in this area, at least,
is withholding that basic human right from the people,
and it’s morally wrong, it’s ethically wrong, it’s constitutionally wrong…
[Steve] You know, it’s just wrong across the board, but it goes on… It happens all the time.
[Steve] And so, you know, it’s a crime against humanity, that’s what it is.
[Steve] These two on oxygen down there. They need a generator…
[Steve] Need a generator, you know, 24/7, around the clock.
[Steve] You know, it’s kind of a life and death situation for 2 of the women down there.
[Steve] Right now, with the price of gas the way it is, it’s already $600 a month
to keep up with the, you know, the cost of the gasoline it takes for this generator to keep going,
[Steve] If the price of gas goes up, it’s going to be more and more expensive
to keep these women alive down in the camp.
[Steve] Oxygen machines, yeah, for the COPD.
[Steve] So, this is the machine here.
[Steve] That’s the machine? Ah, okay. And you tried other places, social services? And nothing, right?
[Francis, Homeless] No, because I have a dog. My dog means a lot to me.
[Steve] Sure. [Francis] My baby…
[Steve] Right. It’s important.
[Steve] That’s right, an animal can be a part of the family for sure.
[Francis] When she’s sleeping, we… All of the time...
[Steve] Yeah.
[Francis] They shut down service for… trauiler campground park.
[Steve] Yeah, it was low-income… Some low-income…
[Francis] And December 1st, they just… they shut it down.
[Francis] We all had to move.
[Francis] And it’s not because I haven’t been paying rent, it’s because they sold it.
[Steve] Right, yeah. It was your last affordable place to live in the area.
[Francis] That’s right. I had a trailer all for my own, but now...
[Steve] Well, this is our last resort.
[Steve] We try to make it as comfortable as possible, but… There’s just no other options.
[Reporter] Sorry, how old are you?
[Francis] Me? I’ll be 64 next month.
[Steve] Yeah, Angelo? [Angelo] I just ordered the eggplant.
[Steve] Oh, fantastic.
[Angelo] It’s heirloom and it’s organic, non-GMO. Everything gotta be non-GMO.
[Steve] Fantastic!
[Angelo] I got 50 seeds of eggplants cause people like eggplant here.
[Angelo] I don’t want to be under… I want to be over.
[Angelo] If we have an abundance – we can give it to others.
[Angelo] I can cook Greek or Italian eggplant.
[Angelo] Like, eggplant parm I can make,
or I can make the Greek eggplant where you put in a flour,
and you put little chunks of garlic on top of it.
[Steve] Grow some spinach and we can get some spanakopita.
[Angelo] There we go! [Steve] Yeah, love Greek spanakopita!
[Steve] So, spinach… And let’s see what else do we need?
[Steve] Let’s see… Feta cheese? We’ll work on that later.
[Steve] We’re gonna do it. We got big area right here.
[Steve] Right here is the big area, and the soil is tremendous for this area.
[Steve] Southern Jersey is not known for good soil.
[Angelo] No…
[Steve] But, for whatever reason, because I think this must’ve been swampland,
it had a lot of biomatter growing and decaying here.
[Steve] And it created a very… They call it much soil in this sort of areas.
[Steve] And it was just fantastic soil, yeah, for growing things.
[Steve] And so we just happen to be blessed with another godsend.
[Steve] We were blessed with good soil.
[Steve] But here we’ve got a plot of land I think we go about 200 yards over here.
[Steve] Another football field. Football field would be too far.
[Steve] So, I think 200, maybe 150 yards, 200 yards.
[Steve] So, we’ll cut this down with a lawnmower
and then we’ll get the rototiller, we’ll bring in the rototiller.
[Steve] We’ll till this soil up here.
[Steve] And you’ve got seeds on order?
[Angelo] I’ve got them on order. I’ve got two now, I’m gonna be ordering more.
[Angelo] You know, cause I’m looking at, I wanna make sure it’s heirloom, non-GMO, you know…
[Angelo] I don’t wanna become a genetic hybrid by eating corn.
[Steve] The stream, we’ll tap into the stream for washing water,
for showers and things like that, but excess that continues to run, it runs right there past the tower.
[Steve] And it must go into the woods, because there’s no pond there now.
[Steve] But we’ll create a pond. We’ll dig around.
[Steve] You know, we’ll dig a couple of feet deep, and we’ll create a pond.
[Steve] And then, with a generator and a pump, we’ll pump it to irrigate our garden.
[Maryellen] Everybody has problems. I mean both my children are living with people
that they are scared are gonna throw them out in the street any day.
[Maryellen] You know what I’m saying? So,
they can’t help me because every time they try to help me,
it gets them in trouble.
[Steve] So… Yeah, we’re here in the Lakewood industrial park.
[Steve] This is I think the second-largest industrial park in the state.
[Steve] It’s a very big industrial park.
[Steve] These are more manufacturing type jobs.
[Steve] Service-type jobs. And typically, they’ll pay really well.
[Steve] And so… A lot of times people that are working here,
they need two jobs or their spouse needs to be working a good job also to afford ends meet…
[Steve] You know, the problem is, the cost of housing keeps on going up.
[Steve] Cost of living keeps on going up. Inflation keeps on going up.
[Steve] Gas keeps on going up. So all the cost of living keeps on rising.
[Steve] But the salaries typically aren’t keeping up.
[Steve] And so, it’s a big problem for a lot of families.
[Steve] And I’m seeing it first-hand with the families…
[Steve] I’ve got another family coming down into the homeless camp this week.
[Steve] We’ll have five complete families living in the tent city.
[Steve] Yeah, I've done some research on the family history Thomas Brigham came over in 1635.
[Steve] My personal family, the Brigham family,
had a key role in starting the Revolution, guiding the Revolution, and participating.
[Steve] A 117 Brighams fought in the Revolution.
[Steve] All related to me.
[Steve] So, this idea of equality is near and dear to my heart.
[Steve] And I can't see why these government agencies aren't doing what they're supposed to do
in guarding the rights of the people and treating everybody equal.
[Steve] You know, and that's part of the reason why I do this in Lakewood.
[Steve] Because I see groups of people that are being discriminated against
and disrespected, you know, it's just not the American way.