DCA Announces Rural and Suburban Homelessness Outreach and Engagement Pilot Program

• Posted on: 05/16/2023

Program Aims to Help Rural and Suburban Communities in New Jersey Respond to Persons Experiencing Homelessness and Those at Risk of Homelessness.

TRENTON, NJ – The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) launched the Rural and Suburban Homelessness Outreach and Engagement Pilot Program earlier this year to help rural and suburban communities in the state strengthen their response to people experiencing homelessness and people at risk of homelessness.

As part of the pilot program, DCA recently awarded $2 million in grants after a competitive application process to nonprofit organizations serving Burlington, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Salem, Sussex, and Warren counties, which currently have little to no homelessness outreach services. The goal is to make it much easier for people in rural and suburban areas to quickly access homelessness prevention services in their county when they need it.

“Outreach services are an effective tool in DCA’s work to prevent homelessness in all communities around New Jersey,” said Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver, who serves as DCA Commissioner. “We are hopeful that this outreach and engagement pilot program will assist us in better identifying people in rural and suburban parts of the state who are facing homelessness and get them the resources they need to find shelter and improve their long-term housing situation.”

Equal $250,000 grants were awarded to Family Promise of Hunterdon County; Family Promise of Sussex County; Family Promise of Warren County; Garden State Home; Jewish Family Services of Atlantic and Cape May Counties; Volunteers of America Delaware Valley – Burlington; Volunteers of America Delaware Valley – Gloucester; and Volunteers of America Delaware Valley – Salem and Cumberland.

The grant funding will help the nonprofit social services organizations to:

• Deploy mobile case management and homelessness prevention services to people experiencing homelessness in camps, under bridges, at parks, in temporary motels, meal sites, libraries, and public facilities and those at risk of becoming homeless.
• Add staff and purchase equipment such as vehicles to transport people to safe places to sleep at night.
• Partner with healthcare providers, senior services, addiction services, mental health providers, and local police to find solutions and improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.
• Reduce the number of times people use high-cost services such as hospital emergency rooms for sheltering.
• Increase the frequency of engagement with unhoused people who have significant mental health and physical health needs and people who frequently move in and out of homelessness.
• Provide direct assistance to people in the form of gift cards not exceeding $50 and assistance payments on behalf of the person in need.

DCA’s Office of Homelessness Prevention is administering the pilot program and will assess the program’s performance throughout 2023 by using a wide array of metrics, including percentage of people accepting referrals to support services, conversion rate of referrals, average number of outreach engagements to affect positive outcome, and length of time it takes a nonprofit provider to reach a person upon notice of need.

The pilot program aims to improve conversion rates by introducing mobile outreach services in each county designed to engage with individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness in these communities. To rapidly help people who are in homelessness conditions and circumstances, the nonprofit organizations will collaborate with NJ 211’s homelessness prevention service, county welfare agencies, and regional Continuum-of-Care programs.

Office of Homelessness Prevention staff recognize that people experiencing homelessness may not want to engage with outreach services specialists and likely have multiple barriers to obtaining safe and stable housing. The pilot program is designed to have outreach specialists become a familiar and trustworthy presence in the community to increase the likelihood of people accepting help to exit or prevent homelessness.  

The Office of Homelessness Prevention coordinates efforts among federal, state, and local agencies and private organizations; evaluates best practices; and analyzes data all with a goal of implementing a statewide homelessness prevention strategy. To achieve this goal, the Office consults with stakeholders, including people who are homeless, to identify the policies and initiatives that have been most successful as well as those that have not. 

DCA offers a wide range of programs and services, including local government management and finance, affordable housing production, fire safety, building safety, community planning and development, disaster recovery and mitigation, historic preservation, and information privacy.

For more information about DCA, visit https://nj.gov/dca/ or follow the Department on social media: