Trenton man living in tent for 3 years gets housing help
TRENTON » Ron Doggett finally has a roof over his head.
After living three years on East Front Street in a makeshift camp, Doggett, a homeless man, agreed to enter a housing program, city health officer James Brownlee said Thursday.
“This actually was a winwin today,” Brownlee said. “You had a guy that was out there in severe cold. We’re able to get him into housing with support services with it.”
Trenton police on Thursday helped removed Doggett, who found refuge inside a tent and undercover of an abandoned downtown parking structure.
Doggett had lived near the city’s Mill Hill Park area before Wednesday when an eyewitness said police officers in two vehicles accompanied by men in two red city trucks visited the homeless man around mid-morning.
“Why now?,” said a man. He asked for anonymity, identifying himself as a person who befriended Doggett after reading about his plight ina Trentonian article that was published around Christmas.
“I went down to meet him right after that Christmas story. I took Ron some food and a gas heater. He was a good guy and you have to wonder why the city did this now. I mean, he’s been there for more than three years.”
Doggett, a soft-spoken man in his 60s, said he had lived virtually outdoors for 13 years. Doggett had attracted other individuals who were living in sleeping bags.
He survived the year’s coldest temperatures before city employees and police removed him from the premises
leaving Doggett’s signature identifier.
Doggett pinned numerous playing cards to a chain link fence. Those cards were marked with names of friends and words of inspiration.
The property where Doggett had lived was owned by the Trenton Parking Authority.
Brownlee said the city received a request from the agency to remove the homeless man, but Doggett voluntarily agreed to enter housing.
Doggett was placed into a hotel for the next five days as Oaks Integrated Care readies an apartment for him, the city health officer said. The city’s outreach teams are working with Doggett to ensure he is comfortable through the transition, Brownlee said.
The city has known about Doggett for “quite some time,” Brownlee said, but the homeless man has resisted help for a number of reasons due to “behavioral/mental issues.”
“The bottom line is the outreach teams, all the providers
that work with us have been working with him on a regular basis in going over there,” Brownlee said.
Doggett’s camp had also recently garnered attention from several other homeless people, who set up shop near him.
“My understanding is police already had to address the issue with them that they were trespassing and they had to leave,” Brownlee said. “There was a lot of dirt, filth and stuff that needed to be cleaned up.”
A visit to Doggett’s former makeshift camp on Thursday showed that the area had been cleaned up, except Doggett’s trademark cards.
A mural still remained with the message: “Who are we as humans if we ignore the suffering of others.”