Christ Episcopal Church had applied to build a 949-square-foot addition on its outreach center to host 17 beds year-round for the homeless.
Karen Wall, Patch Staff
TOMS RIVER, NJ — After eight months of testimony and raw emotions — both inside and outside of the hearings — the Toms River Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected a request to build a 17-bed homeless shelter on the property at Christ Episcopal Church.
The 5-2 vote to deny approval to the project, which sought a variance because there are no homeless shelters permitted in the residential zone where the church sits, brought cheers from residents of the neighborhood.
Attorney Harvey York, who represented Christ Episcopal Church before the zoning board, said during his closing remarks before the board that the decision will be appealed in court.
The closing statements by York and by attorney Edward Bezdecki, representing one of the objectors to the project, were equal parts legal arguments and emotional ones that provoked angry responses.
Bezdecki characterized homeless in the area as dangerous, saying, "They’re alcoholics, they're putting needles in their arms."
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He repeated the comments of a woman who spoke and shared that her daughter had been approached twice at a bus stop and "got in her face."
"Do we need a third time where we have to put up flyers for a missing child?" Bezdecki said.
He also accused the church — which has a lengthy history of assisting those in need through its outreach — of "relying on the homeless to make their bottom line," referring to the $12 million in funding from Ocean County that had been promised to create the shelter and run the program that would have housed 13 men and four women nightly.
York, meanwhile, painted objectors — which included residents of the neighborhood and representatives of Toms River Country Club, which backs up to the church property — as selfish and entitled.
He cited complaints from the country club about the potential for homeless people to harass club members, saying, "Some rich people are playing golf and tennis and what is some homeless person going to do? How close do you think (a homeless person) would get before someone called 911?"
York also dismissed remarks from a woman who expressed concern about her granddaughter going to the bus stop from her home, saying the woman could "get in her car and drive 300 feet and sit for 5 minutes" until the bus comes, suggesting the woman was being unreasonable.
York appealed to the board, urging the members to focus on the fact that the homeless are human beings who need help.
"I see homeless people. Do I like the way they look? No. But I think it’s our responsibility to help," York said. "They are not evil people. They're not going away. The homeless situation is only going to be worse.
"All we are asking to do is make sure 17 people have a place to stay … instead of sleeping in the parking garage," York said.
The board members who voted to deny the application cited the location, in a residential zone and near schools, as the primary concern.
"This has been a war between my heart and my head for eight months," board member Dana Tormollan said as she cast a "no" vote. She expressed safety concerns about having men and women together with only a curtain separating them, saying it put both at risk.
"Women deserve to feel safe," she said, and added that the men would be at risk of being accused of doing harm to the women.
Tormollan said she will be reaching out to Ocean County officials to see what can be done to help the homeless, and admonished some who had spoken harshly about them during the hearings.
"Step up and help them instead of mocking them," she said. "They deserve a home. We all deserve a home."
Mark Erb, who voted no, expressed concerns about the level of staffing for the shelter, which would be two people working through the night, from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., as well as the training they would have to manage any potential situations that arose, from someone using alcohol or drugs — against the shelter's rules — to more serious issues.
"There’s so many different aspects to this," Jeffrey Dingsor said. "We are voting on a zoning issue not an emotional issue. I do not believe this is the right place for it."
"(Zoning) applications have major implications not only to residents but townwide," board chairman Jason Crispin said in voting no. "Approving this application would affect other parts of town for years to come."
"Toms River has to do better," Anthony Fontana said as he voted no. "Ocean County has to do better. For $12 million the homeless deserve better than 17 beds."
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Related:Ocean County Homelessness
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