NEWARK, N.J., March 7 (UPI) -- A New Jersey state senator spent a night in a shelter disguised as a homeless man as part of an investigation into conditions the homeless face.
Richard J. Codey, a Democrat, told The Star-Ledger of Newark the conditions he found Monday night in the Goodwill Mission in Newark were better than he expected but still depressing. He said he was told he would have to apply for welfare if he wanted to stay for more than one night and then sign all checks over to the shelter.
"The indictment here is of a system that says if you're male, or have an illness that's mental, they don't want you," he said. "And if you're not on a public entitlement program, there's no bed at the inn."
Codey, who has represented a district in the Newark suburbs since 1973 as assemblyman and senator, is a former president of the state Senate and served as acting governor of New Jersey from November 2004 to January 2006. In the 1980s, he went undercover as an employee at a state psychiatric hospital.
At Goodwill, employees failed to search him for weapons, he said, and gave him only a thin bedroll to put on the floor. He selected that shelter because of the number of times police respond to calls there.
Codey said he began his investigation several months ago and is especially concerned about the plight of the homeless mentally ill.
