This coming Saturday, February 21 at 8 p.m., three Jersey City community activists are planning to be “homeless” for one night to bring attention to the growing rise in homelessness in Jersey City and throughout the nation.
Three activists – Adela Rohena, St. Peter’s College student and current candidate for City Council in Ward C; Narciso Castillo, director of the Latino, community-based organization NJ Action 21, and Erik-Anders Nilsson, director of the local peace and justice group, Jersey City Peace Movement – will make their temporary home in Journal Square from 8 p.m. Saturday night until Sunday, February 22 at 2 p.m.
All three, residents of Jersey City, are scheduled to spend the night in Journal Square meeting with people who call ‘The Square’ their home.
Rohena, Castillo and Nilsson will bring food, clothing and information to distribute to the needy and those without homes or places safe to stay.
The next day, Jersey City Peace Movement will have their monthly Sunday anti-war, street-action from noon to 2 p.m. at the Journal Square 9/11 Memorial Fountain.
In January, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development held their biennial homeless census across the country,including Hudson County. Nationally, it is estimated that some 744,000 people are homeless, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
For more information, e-mail Narciso Castillo at NJACTION21@verizon.net. – Ricardo Kaulessar
Activists to be “homeless” for a night
