Tent Cities Popping Up All Around New Jersey - Camden Tent City

8/2/13 - Camden, New Jersey (My9NJ) - Tent cities have popped up across New Jersey including the state's poorest city. Meg Baker chased the story of Camden's tent city. Residing off Route 38 at Wilson Boulevard under an overpass, through woods and down a path of trash lays a community of people living in tents. This particular community was relocated from Federal Street and it's inhabited by an array of people: addicts, people who have fallen on hard times and some with mental illness.

Baker took a tour of this run down community and the pictures show just how heart-wrenching this situation really is. Among the homes are decomposing food, broken furniture, and feral cats.

When asked how long a woman had lived there, she only answered, "Too long."

Many of the people who live in the Camden tent city walk down to Cathedral Kitchen. The chef says he feeds about a hundred people a day from the tent city.

"This is just a lot of good people who fell on bad times," Executive Chef Jonathan Jernigan says. "Lost their jobs, lost their family, a lot of depression and mental illness."

In the studio the Chasers discussed what needs to happen to help these people.

Baker plans to visit a tent city in Essex County, which has the largest population of homeless people in New Jersey. She also plans to go to a Newark tent city.