A Hoboken native in her early 60s named Joan has been living on local streets for more than a year with her faithful snow-white cat, Sugar, whom she adopted as a stray seven years ago.
Recently, Joan – who asked that her last name not be used – talked about how she ended up on the streets.
Joan is a familiar sight around Hoboken, often sitting on a bench on Washington Street as dusk falls, scratching between Sugar’s ears. She says Hoboken holds good memories for her because she lived there in her in her youngest years. However, at some point in her childhood, her family moved to Union City.
“My aunt in Hoboken said, ‘This place is going to be something big someday,’ ” Joan recalled on a recent sunny Sunday afternoon, resting with Sugar at a Washington Street bus stop. “My father said, ‘No, where we’re going is going to be big.’ ”
When Joan was an adult, she moved to her own apartment on 14th Street in Union City. She said the area became unsafe and she’d find things missing from her unit when she came home. True or not, she found a less expensive alternative: a nondescript hotel/rooming house in the same town, not far from Kennedy Blvd.
She moved there in 1991 when rooms rented for $100 a week – not bad, considering she didn’t have to pay utilities or a month’s deposit.
Joan said that last year, the administration in Union City closed the hotel because of fire and other violations, although she believes certain tenants caused the problems, not the hotel.
A city lawyer confirmed that the hotel was cleared out after a fire in 2007. It had actually been temporarily shut down before that by the state due to code violations, a state official confirmed.
Joan does not believe the hotel should have been closed, and believes the city just wanted to put condos there.
“There’s no such thing as affordable housing here anymore.” – Joan
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She paid the rent with her full-time maintenance job, where she still works from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each weekday.
Still affordable
“There’s no such thing as affordable housing here anymore,” Joan said last week. She has to remain in the area because of the inexpensive public transportation to her job.
Besides, there are the memories.
“Hoboken holds a lot of attachment for me,” she said. “It reminds me of my cousins. I learned to drive here, on Observer Highway. My first kiss was here. There is a lot of attachment, you would say.”
All of her close family members have passed away, she says, except for Sugar. “That’s my family,” Joan said.
Joan met Sugar seven years ago when a co-worker of hers found the feline while cleaning an abandoned apartment. Sugar was already five years old.
Now, Joan travels the streets of Hoboken with Sugar safely in a cat carrier with air holes. She said she and her cat don’t mind the cold, but if it rains hard or snows, she will pay for a hotel room for one night so that Sugar doesn’t get sick. A nightly rate for a place that allows pets is sometimes $130, almost what a week cost in her old place in Union City.
Fancy Feast
Joan has enough money for her and Sugar to eat, she said, noting that she had just filled one of her duffel bags with Fancy Feast. “She’s not exactly skinny,” Joan smiled. “We have food. But I’d give anything for an affordable home again.”
But why spend extra money on Fancy Feast? “It has real fish in it,” she said, going on to detail the health benefits over imitation cat food. The longer Sugar lives, the longer Joan can continue to live with her faithful friend.
The homeless in Hudson County
In the last two years, a one-day census of homeless people in Hudson County found 2,842 in 2007, and 2,227 in 2008. The county has three shelters – one in Union City, one in Jersey City, and one in Hoboken. Together, they can fit fewer than 200 people per night.
“Too many people stereotype,” Joan said. “There are lots of homeless families on the street now. Yes, there are drug addicts who are homeless. Yes, there are drug dealers who are homeless. Yes, there are mentally ill. But some [drug addicts and dealers] have homes as well, do they not?”
Of how people treat her in Hoboken, she said, “Most people are nice. Some of the kids, when they get drunk, are just plain mean.”
Joan is grateful that next year, she will become eligible for Social Security. Meanwhile, she is hoping that someone might have an affordable apartment for her and Sugar. Anyone who has information can send it to editorial@hudsonreporter.com, with “Joan and Sugar” in the subject head.
Caren Matzner can be reached at CMatzner@hudsonreporter.com.