Seventeen

Seventeen.

That is the number of homeless people who live in Ocean County, according to the Point in Time survey conducted by the State of New Jersey.

That is the number Ocean County Freeholder Gerry P. Little referenced in an interview with the Asbury Park Press, to counter claims that they are not doing enough to help the homeless.

I am furious, because that number is an ugly, bold-faced lie.

I know this because I have been serving as a voice for Ocean County’s homeless for the past two years. I can tell you with complete certainty that there are more than seventeen homeless people in one Ocean County town alone. And I can also tell you that these individuals would not come forward and take part in a statewide survey because by doing so, they could be risking police harassment, destruction of the meager roofs over their heads.

What Freeholder Little is really saying is that the homeless who were not counted don’t matter. That, in essence, they deserve to remain invisible.

On Saturday, I saw the movie “Freeheld,” which tells the true story of a terminally ill Ocean County police lieutenant, Laurel Hester, who wants to give her pension to her female life partner but is denied this right by the Ocean County Freeholders.

The names of the freeholders are changed in the current film. But in the 2007 documentary of the same name (which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short), we see Freeholder Joseph Vicari blaming the state legislature and John Bartlett blaming union contracts as reasons for the county to uphold their denial of benefits to Laurel. Freeholder Jack Kelly invoked his personal beliefs, stating that recognizing domestic partnerships would violate the sanctity of marriage. Laurel’s partner on the police force, Dane Wells, compared the Freeholders’ denial of benefits to gay couples to laws in the segregated South. “The freeholders had a different excuse every time we asked them about this,” said Don Bennett, a reporter with the Ocean County Observer.

Ultimately, public outrage and a call from Governor Corzine pressured the Freeholders to reverse their decision. Until that point, however, they refused to acknowledge the basic rights of same-sex couples.

Just as now, nearly ten years later, the Ocean County Freeholders refuse to acknowledge their moral obligation to institute a program that will benefit the homeless. And again, by their words and actions, the Ocean County Freeholders are sending a message that certain people don’t matter.

But “we the people” includes ALL people. All people matter. Equality matters. Human rights matter, far more than votes or surveys or the self-serving interests of those in power.

And if those in power choose to remain out of touch with the economic realities “We the People” face every day, then they do not deserve to represent us.