By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist

By Marlene Laó-Collins, John Westervelt and Julio Coto

Mull for a minute New Jersey’s nickname, the Garden State. It suggests bounty and security. And indeed, New Jersey regularly ranks near the top of the richest states in the country.

Yet poverty is pervasive in New Jersey. One in 10 New Jerseyans lives below the federal poverty line, and more than 40 percent of New Jersey households are considered “the working poor,” a 2018 United Way study found.

At the same time, housing costs are soaring. New Jersey is the sixth most expensive state for renters, with rental costs jumping 16 percent since 2001. A family must earn at least $28.86 an hour to afford a small two-bedroom home, far more than the state’s $10 minimum hourly wage. A fifth of New Jerseyans forks out more than half their income for rent, an imbalance that sinks them even deeper into poverty.

A study breaks down the rising costs of rent in the Garden State.Here’s what you need to make an hour to afford an apartment in N.J.

What does that mean for the state’s lowest earners? For too many, it means not having a safe, stable, affordable home. More than 9,400 people in New Jersey are homeless, living on the street or in shelters, staying in cars or motels, or counting on the kindness of friends for a place to sleep each night.

For others, it means being forced to make impossible decisions on a daily basis: Should they pay the rent – or buy groceries for dinner? Should they spend money to keep the heat and lights on – or to go to the doctor?

For children, these hardships can echo into adulthood. Homelessness, housing insecurity, and poverty are considered “adverse childhood experiences.” These experiences during their formative years can become “biologically embedded” and cause lifelong physical and mental health problems.

New Jersey’s severe shortage of affordable housing is an entrenched crisis impacting thousands of families from all corners of the state. The gap between rents and incomes has become an increasingly unbreachable chasm, and federal housing assistance hasn’t kept pace with the growing ranks of people in need.

That’s why we will be in Washington, D.C., on July 24 to urge our lawmakers to make affordable housing a funding priority. Every year, hundreds of advocates and people impacted by homelessness and housing insecurity in New Jersey trek to Capitol Hill for a Congressional Reception known as “N.J. Hill Day.”

The event offers an opportunity for people to share their stories of housing crisis directly with our elected officials and to press for safe, stable, affordable housing opportunities for all. The campaign this year, spearheaded by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, is “Opportunity Starts at Home: Building a Necessary and Secure Foundation for Healthy Communities.”

That theme underscores three truths about the critical role a home plays in our daily lives: Housing is a right, housing is healthcare, and housing creates healthy communities.

New Jersey’s five Catholic Charities in the dioceses of Trenton, Camden, Newark, Paterson, and Metuchen are on the front lines in the fight to end homelessness and housing insecurity. We offer specialized services to help move people into stable, affordable homes through programs like Rapid Rehousing, Keeping Families Together, and Supportive Housing. We also offer services to help people recover from countless other crises, including addiction, mental illness, unemployment, and natural disasters.

After more than a century of doing this work, we know that a stable home is the foundation for self-sufficiency. Without it, a person in crisis can’t concentrate on the hard work recovery – from any hardship or challenge – requires. Without it, they can’t make it

We applaud New Jersey for making significant investments to combat the crises that cripple communities, from addiction to poverty. Yet we still fall behind making the necessary investments for affordable housing.

Effective solutions to reducing homelessness and housing insecurity exist. But too often, lawmakers fail to recognize this as a national emergency and provide the resources needed to empower all communities to put these solutions into practice.

This work cannot be done by housing advocates alone. Lawmakers must step up. And we urge the public to demand that their elected leaders fund affordable housing development and support policies that will make our communities stronger and healthier by ensuring housing for all.

Marlene Laó -Collins is the executive director of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton. John Westervelt is the executive director of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Newark and Julio Coto is the executive director, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen. The letter was also signed by Kevin Hickey, the executive director, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Camden and Scott Milliken, the executive director, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Paterson.