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Ex-Tent City residents hit the road again

Tent City's homeless are on the move again. After officials in Cumberland County rebuffed a plan to temporarily house them in a church facility there, a Cherry Hill hotel has offered cheap rooms through August, according to the South Jersey clergyman who has become a would-be savior to Tent City's former residents.

Jim Luddy, 38, leaves Camden's shutdown Tent City on May 7. About 50 former Tent City residents are now staying at a Cherry Hill hotel. ( Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer)
Jim Luddy, 38, leaves Camden's shutdown Tent City on May 7. About 50 former Tent City residents are now staying at a Cherry Hill hotel. ( Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer)Read more

Tent City's homeless are on the move again.

After officials in Cumberland County rebuffed a plan to temporarily house them in a church facility there, a Cherry Hill hotel has offered cheap rooms through August, according to the South Jersey clergyman who has become a would-be savior to Tent City's former residents.

"God worked out a tremendous miracle," said Pastor Amir Khan, of the nonprofit Nehemiah Group and Clementon's Solid Rock Worship Center.

The odyssey of the approximately 50 homeless people, some of whom lived for years in the Camden encampment off a Route 676 exit ramp, continues to take unexpected turns.

The media began to report on Tent City in January 2009, which attracted donations that helped sustain the self-governing community.

By the end of the year, the notoriety and growth of Tent City prompted government officials and social service agencies to look for a way to shut it down. An April 15 deadline came and went, however, because of lack of money and a resettlement plan.

Then, last week, Khan said he had amassed more than $250,000 in donations, which he planned to use to house the homeless in a Mount Laurel hotel for one night, then a Cumberland County church facility for three weeks, and finally permanent housing in various South Jersey locations for one year.

That plan has not panned out.

After the homeless went to the hotel on Thursday, a Cumberland County freeholder intervened, saying that the Crusaders for Christ Evangelistic Ministries facility in Fairfield Township, next to Bridgeton, was not zoned for use as a shelter. Freeholder Director Louis N. Magazzu said the arrangement also posed health-code concerns.

"I don't mean to sound heartless or unsympathetic. I respect the work the church does, but we have an unemployment rate that is higher than the state and national average," Magazzu said. "We have good things happening, and we just don't need to take problems from other areas."

Allowing the homeless to stay for even three weeks could open the door for other homeless shelters and send the wrong signal to potential investors, Magazzu said.

Khan was surprised, he said, because he had rented the facility as temporary housing several times before. Crusaders for Christ, unaffiliated with Khan's church, did not return a call for comment.

Magazzu described himself as a "socially progressive" Democrat, and said he understood that "these are people with enormous challenges, and they are also God's children," which is why he planned to make a small contribution to help the group.

Magazzu's concerns prompted Crusaders for Christ to retract its agreement with the homeless, Khan said.

So the group - mostly men, ranging in age from their early 20s to mid-60s - ended up at the Wingate by Wyndham Hotel in Mount Laurel through Sunday night, during which time three people returned to Camden, according to Tent City spokesman James Boggs.

On Monday, the pastor moved his flock to the Inn at Cherry Hill on Route 70, formerly known as the Clarion Hotel, at a greatly reduced rate. The group will stay there for most of the summer, Khan said.

The plan is for Camden social service providers to work with the homeless while they are at the hotel, helping them find jobs and permanent housing.

"You're not living in a tent, you got air-conditioning that works, hot-cold running water," Boggs said, after settling into his new room. "We're looking pretty good."