Watch CBS News

Lakewood Officials Hold Off On Eviction Plan For 'Tent City' Homeless Camp

LAKEWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Tent City, the homeless encampment near the Jersey Shore, is getting another reprieve this week.

Lakewood town officials are backing off -- for now -- a plan to tear down the camp and evict its 80 or so residents from the woods near a minor league baseball stadium.

The town issued 18 summonses to leaders of the camp last month and said they would dismantle Tent City by Wednesday if leaders don't do it on their own.

But a lawyer for the homeless told The Associated Press on Monday that Lakewood officials have agreed not to act on their own, at least until after a court hearing in two weeks.

An agreement letting the camp remain for now, signed by both sides, will go before a judge on Wednesday.

The agreement says Lakewood will not undertake "any demolition, removal or other action by force of any kind" without permission from the homeless people's lawyer, or a court order. The agreement also notes that Lakewood maintains its right to address the underlying conditions that promoted it to issue the summonses.

Lakewood had threatened daily fines of $1,000 for each of the site's 100 tents and 80 wood burning stoves.

They cited health and sanitary issues at the site, as well as complaints from residents whose homes are near the encampment. Lakewood's mayor called conditions there "disgusting" and "horrendous."

The residents of Tent City are in their seventh winter in the encampment, which encompasses township-owned land about 11 miles northwest of Seaside Heights.

The township and Ocean County have been trying to close the camp for years. Superior Court Judge Joseph Foster ruled in Jan. 2012 that "There is a governmental responsibility here to care for the poor at some level."

There is no homeless shelter in Ocean County.

"As a result of the motels and other housing that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy or filled by Sandy's thousands of refugees, there has never been a harder time for Ocean County's homeless," Jeffrey Wild, an attorney for the camp, wrote to the judge in a Jan. 29 letter. "There are more homeless than ever, both in Tent City and elsewhere. This also remains a terribly difficult winter, which is far from over."

Share your thoughts in the comments section below...

(TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.