Camden shelters facing utility shutoff

Keeping drug-addicted men off the streets is hard. But these days, keeping the lights on is even harder.

My Brother's Keeper, a nonprofit organization that provides room and board for homeless male drug addicts at three buildings in North Camden, owes $12,675.51 to utility PSE&G. The gas has been shut down at two of its three rowhomes; the electricity is expected to be cut any day now.

"If this isn't here, there will be a void in the community," said Oscar Hernandez, administrator for My Brother's Keeper. The five-figure bill looming over his head "isn't stopping us from what we need to do," he said.

My Brother's Keeper - founded in 1988 out of a Camden garage - aims to provide beds and meals to anyone, day or night, particularly those who have trouble getting into other shelters: men, drug addicts, the mentally ill. The 11 men currently under the care of the Christian-based group have been there for stints of four to six months.

"We're grabbing them and turning them around," Hernandez said. "There's no machinery. There's love, understanding and patience."

The group pays about $400 a month toward its utility bills, but Hernandez said it got in the hole last winter when it housed many homeless people.

According to PSE&G, the organization accumulated the debt over two years. The company has worked with it to arrange payment plans, but some months the group still does not pay, said spokeswoman Karen Johnson.

"Because we've had payment arrangements that have been broken, we are requiring the full amount to not only restore the gas service but ensure that whatever services remain on, stay on," Johnson said.

Johnson did not know when the electricity was scheduled to be shut off.

In the meantime, without gas for cooking at its main house on State Street, the men have cold cereal for breakfast and are thinking about borrowing neighbors' kitchens to make dinner.

They're also hoping for donations. The May Funeral Homes in Camden made a donation yesterday, and City Council President Angel Fuentes is sponsoring a charity tennis tournament on Oct. 4 to benefit the group.

The Rev. Miguel Torres, the group's founder and a former drug addict, says God will rescue the program, which he says has an 80 percent success rate.

"I just trust in Him to do what he has to do," Torres said.

Days at My Brother's Keeper begin at 6 a.m. and are heavily structured with Bible classes, Narcotics Anonymous meetings, computer lessons and meals of donated food, which the men help to cook.

Yesterday afternoon, many of the men were handing out bread, bagels and cucumbers to needy neighbors from a table outside the main My Brother's Keeper building.

Upstairs, they live in communal rooms that have the warmth of a family home but the neatness of a military barracks. The men's clothing, often donated, is stored in cubby holes.

William Thomas Bledsoe, 34, arrived June 5, struggling with an addition to prescription pills.

"The first couple of days I would wake up scared, sweating, trying to figure out where I was, crying," he said.

Bledsoe said he is proud of the responsibilities he has been given at the house, including helping to wake up the other men in the morning and sleeping "with one eye open," in case a heroin addict in the early days of detoxification needs him to call 911.

Men find My Brother's Keeper through churches, family members, parole officers or simply by walking the streets of North Camden looking for drugs.

Jason Usilton, 22, was sleeping behind a building in Medford more than a week ago. Now he is reading the Bible and copying down verses.

And staying sober.

"I believe it will work," he said