The Tent City Project: March 2013

Lawyers for Lakewood and Tent City have agreed to a plan to close the camp and find housing for its residents. Here's my piece for Patch on today's hearing.

The Tent City Project

With unemployment rates stuck at decades-long highs and more and more people finding themselves without shelter as foreclosures rates rise, the nation is faced with an unsettling trend. People who have lost their jobs and homes are pitching tents and building shacks in the woods near middle-class neighborhoods as an alternative to sleeping in cars or being warehoused in shelters. They often are invisible to their neighbors and too often are faced with the hostility of local governments.

“Tent City” in Lakewood, N.J., is just one of hundreds of these encampments around the country. It was established six years ago as a way to organize the sporadic camps that dotted Ocean County and provide a level of safety and regularity to the 100 or so homeless men and women who have come to call “Tent City” home.

In an effort to delve into the truth, three New Jersey artists – documentary filmmaker Jack Ballo, journalist and poet Hank Kalet and photographer Sherry Rubel – are combining their mediums in an artistic collaborative perspective that will not only bring the real faces and stories behind this national epidemic to the foreground, but force us to realize that the tent cities are not going away. The encampments may very well become a normal and permanent part of our culture.

A collaborative art event will display photographs, explore journalism and poetry and coincide with a film premiere that will be open to the public. The event will not only bring awareness to the upsurge in tent cities across the country, it will open dialogue and discussions about the reality behind these wooded communities.

Behind The Tent City Project

Jack Ballo started his production company, Ultravision, in 1985. After over 20 years in video production, most of his time is now spent making documentaries that focus on humanitarian issues. His last two films, ELIO and BEFORE YOU LEAVE, have both won awards and are examples of his commitment to bringing attention to issues the traditional media refuses to cover. www.UltravisionFilms.com

Hank Kalet is a poet and journalist whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and weekly newspapers, including The Progressive magazine, In These Times and NJ Spotlight. He teaches news writing at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and writes a twice-monthly column for The Progressive Populist. His book, Certainties and Uncertainties was published in 2010. He is the author of the blog, Channel Surfing and maintains The Tent City Project blog.

Sherry Rubel grew up in her father's darkroom. Currently, she is freelance photographer for PATCH. Sherry is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ModelzROCK Magazine. Her photographs have been featured in several exhibits throughout New Jersey, as well as 25 "Living Legacy" portraits in permanent collection at the Actors' Fund Home in Englewood, NJ. http://www.photographybysherryrubel.blogspot.com/

The Tent City Project

Friday, March 15, 2013

Agreement reached to close Tent City

N.J. Homelessness by the Numbers

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