HOBOKEN – The Waterfront Project, a Hoboken-based non-profit, will kick off a two-day summit on Friday, Oct. 2 to spread awareness about the causes of homelessness in Hudson County.
The event will include a panel discussion on Oct. 2 at Stevens Institute of Technology, followed by an all-night vigil in front of the campus’ DeBaun Auditorium which will include attendees and panelists sleeping outside to “further emphasize and understand the plight of being homeless,” organizers say on the website.
The expert panel and Q & A will include Kim Hawkins, a professor at the New York School of Law with an expertise in at-risk youth and LGBT homelessness, John Jacobi, Dorothea Dix professor of health law and policy, and faculty director at the Seton Hall Law Center for Health and Pharmaceutical Law and Policy, Dr. Victor Carlson, chief of Homeless Service for the VA Hospitals of New Jersey; and Randi Moore, division chief for Hudson County Division of Housing and Community Development.
The following morning on Saturday, Oct. 3, attendees will gather at the northern entrance of Stevens Park at 9 a.m. and walk together throughout the Hoboken streets most inhabited by the homeless.
The National Alliance to end Homelessness say that as of January 2014, there were over 500,000 people experiencing homelessness throughout the United States. The Point-in-Time Count of the Homeless conducted in Hudson County, a statewide tally, estimates that as of early February, 917 people from 728 households were counted as homeless, which was up 11.7 percent from 821 homeless people from 627 households counted in 2014.
According to The Waterfront Project the homeless population in the U.S is currently 11 times that of the Hoboken population.
To learn more and for the route and times for the walk visit www.thewaterfrontproject.org. Stevens Institute of Technology is located at 1 Castle Point Terrace, Hoboken.