American Photography 29 Winners

Just For Now: A Year In Tent City

Cynthia and Elwood sit on the bed inside their tent in Tent City, Lakewood, NJ., one from a series for the article "Just For Now: A Year In Tent City," November 22, 2012. Tent City is a community of around 100 homeless people living in tents and shacks in a publicly owned patch of woods in suburban Lakewood, NJ. The seven year old camp is home to a mixture of the chronically unsheltered and, more recently, victims of the 2008 recession. There are no homeless shelters in Lakewood, nor in the surrounding Ocean County, but in the summer of 2010, the City of Lakewood filed a lawsuit to evict the residents of the camp. A legal battle has ensued, and a pro-bono attorney for the camp has come forward demanding that every person should have a basic right to shelter themselves on public land in the absence of an alternative.  The residents of Tent City are still in the woods, waiting for the courts to decide their fate.

Just For Now: A Year In Tent City

Michael Berenzweig feeds the chickens outside of his tent in Tent City, Lakewood, NJ., one from a series for the article "Just For Now: A Year In Tent City," November 22, 2012. Tent City is a community of around 100 homeless people living in tents and shacks in a publicly owned patch of woods in suburban Lakewood, NJ. The seven year old camp is home to a mixture of the chronically unsheltered and, more recently, victims of the 2008 recession. There are no homeless shelters in Lakewood, nor in the surrounding Ocean County, but in the summer of 2010, the City of Lakewood filed a lawsuit to evict the residents of the camp. A legal battle has ensued, and a pro-bono attorney for the camp has come forward demanding that every person should have a basic right to shelter themselves on public land in the absence of an alternative.  The residents of Tent City are still in the woods, waiting for the courts to decide their fate.