Jon Bon Jovi’s soup kitchen is causing more issues than it’s solving, in the opinion of Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick.
Rodrick spoke with Fox News Digital via phone, explaining that the New Jersey city has a homelessness problem that is being exacerbated by Bon Jovi and other nonprofits.
“We don’t want to be ground zero for homelessness. We don’t want to be a dumping ground for the homeless problem in the state of New Jersey. The state of New Jersey needs to step up and take care of this problem. They have the resources, and bussing people in from all over to Toms River is not a safe situation.”
Rodrick has not spoken directly with Bon Jovi or his organization that runs the soup kitchen, the JBJ Soul Foundation, but admits he is frustrated that the community kitchen opened in the library in Toms River.
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“He’s already operating, he operated something in the Silverton section of town. But it was like a restaurant where people go, and they pay for their meal, and they feel good that the money’s going to be used for something. But this pop-up thing at the library was primarily geared toward making the library, the public library, ground zero for homelessness,” Rodrick said.
The pop-up restaurant opened on Feb. 11 and is one of a total of four locations in the state. It allows diners to pay it forward and cover a suggested $12 cost for those who can’t afford a meal there.
Those who can’t pay are able to volunteer at the community kitchen, which is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, in exchange for sandwiches, wraps, bowls and salads.
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In a statement to the New York Post, Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, who both run the nonprofit, said, “The JBJ Soul Foundation and JBJ Soul Kitchen are committed to ending homelessness through real solutions. We are not here to just move people around or force them into the shadows. Our Foundation has built nearly a thousand units of affordable and supportive housing.”
“Through our JBJ Soul Kitchen, we connect people to resources and services. Whether they need employment, mental health support, or housing, we try to remove the barriers that are keeping them from thriving, not just surviving.”
Prior to Bon Jovi’s organization, Rodrick told Fox News Digital his concerns began after he took office about a year ago, when he was able to close down two homeless encampments and get individuals into housing. But then the Ocean County Board decided to open a warming center, and according to Rodrick, nonprofits began “bussing people into town.”
Rodrick said he raised his concerns to the board, but “they did it anyway and engaged a nonprofit that has various warming centers across the state and, inevitably, they start bussing people into town. Because if their beds are full in one town, they’re incentivized to hang on to these people, and they start putting them in your warming center.”
“We wound up with dozens and dozens of people being dropped off downtown every single day at the library no less, where a mom should feel comfortable walking into the library with her daughter and get a book. You shouldn’t have to walk through gangs of two dozen intoxicated or mentally ill homeless individuals, and that’s the real issue here,” adding there have been numerous police and EMS calls since March from the library.
He also claims that there is “a lot of money that chases around this issue.”
“One of these nonprofits, he formed a nonprofit, this guy, and within a few short years he’s bringing in almost a million dollars in revenue, $750,000 according to charitable organization reports,” Rodrick said, while declining to call out a specific charity.
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“So, I mean, that’s just this little operator who handles 15-20 people at a time, and three quarters of a million dollars is a lot of money, so you can only imagine how much money there is out there for this issue; and you know when they call it the ‘homeless industrial complex,’ I mean, man, they’re not kidding. It’s a big problem.“
He continued, “I feel they’re bussing them in to create the appearance of a problem so that the solution will be to open up a shelter, which will not improve the situation. It will drastically worsen the situation because then you’ll have people dropping people [off in Toms River] from all over the place. And what do you do with them when you can’t keep them? It’s a real problem. It’s a mental health problem, and it’s a substance abuse problem.”
“I’m not accusing Jon Bon Jovi of being in this for profit,” Rodrick noted. “We all like his music. And I think he means well and what he’s doing is the right thing, trying to feed people. We could all agree on that.”
“However, bussing dozens of people from all over the state of New Jersey, all over the County of Ocean … I’ve had people come in from as far away as North Carolina and Philadelphia that wind up in housing that I have to then provide, hotels and such. So they’re being bused in here, dumped here.”
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Bon Jovi and Dorothea also addressed Rodrick’s claims that some nonprofit organizations are actually benefiting financially from bringing homeless people into Toms River.
“We are unsure where the mayor thinks millions of dollars are trading hands, but we are completely unaware of any such programs and receive no such funding,” they told the NY Post. “We invite anyone to the BEAT Center in Toms River or to the JBJ Soul Kitchen Pop Up to see what we are doing to end homelessness and hunger in our community.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Bon Jovi, the JBJ Soul Foundation, the Ocean County Board of Commissioners and Ocean County Library for comment.
Rodrick said Bon Jovi’s community kitchen is set to close in May since it is a temporary pop-up, but he feels like the setup “ran roughshod right over the municipality” after he voiced his concerns.
“They purposefully made the problem worse after me complaining that they were creating this public safety problem,” he said. “Again, everybody, now every nonprofit around takes their people there. Would you want to take your daughter to the library when somebody’s dying on the stairs? It certainly doesn’t sound like Toms River, that’s for sure.”
The mayor also said he is looking at legal action against “certain nonprofits” that are “creating a public nuisance and who have cost the township money.” This does not include Bon Jovi’s community kitchen.
