Jersey Shore Magazine

J e r s e y s h o r e • s p r i n g 2 0 1 4 16 BEACHCOMBER continued from page 15 This is the real story of Sandy, and somebody has to speak up and fight for those folks that don't have a voice. We've had applicants whose income is over $150,000., and they are struggling to make ends meet. It's not always about how much a person makes, which is why we look at the whole picture. How big is the demand on Hometown Heroes today? We get applications in every day; the demand is still great. We have the systems and infrastructure in place to handle the caseload—it's the funding that is the problem. Donations have dropped off the face of the earth. I think a lot of it has to do with the media portraying our shores as fixed. This is typical in most disasters, but we have to press on. Why are you getting referrals from other Sandy charities? I think this is because they know we have no income guidelines and because we can sometimes get a case out the door in as little as one day. Some of these other organiza- tions have strict guidelines and can take months to fund a family, in some cases a year. Some groups will also not fund storm victims until they believe that the applicant has exhausted all of the other available means, to include ourselves as well. Some of the groups that have sent many cases our way include the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group, Catholic Charities, House of Hope, The Red Cross, and Ocean Inc. You said that people are calling Hometown Heroes saying they aren't being helped by other organizations— why do you think this is? I hear this all the time and it really surprises me. I assumed early on in the process that these groups would be helping storm victims as quickly and efficiently as possible, but that doesn't seem to be the case. A lot of "pass-through" organizations have stringent income requirements that knock most families out of the box in terms of assistance. The tons of phony organizations that popped up after the storm who wanted to further their business or make money really hurt the victims too. We heard of this happening on a large scale in Katrina, and we got to see it first hand here in Sandy. I think people sometimes call these groups looking for help and then realize that they aren't even charities. It breaks my heart every time I hear a story of one of our applicants "chas- ing" this money around just to find out that they don't even have access to it. How is Hometown Heroes different from the other Sandy charities? I think our mission is unique. We help people in a crisis period. We do that in three ways: financial assistance, professional assistance, and advocacy. We don't have income requirements, unless of course we secure a grant that has such income requirements attached to it, but the private money we raise has none. We also treat our clients with respect and dignity and would never parade them around as a marketing gimmick. I've had groups ask us this in return for large sums of monetary donations, and we have turned them down because we believe, like George Steinbrenner used to say, "If you do something nice for someone, there are only two people that should know about it, you and them." Will you still be able to help families, given the drop-off in donations? We will always try to help a strug- gling person or family even if it's not monetarily. We may refer them to the right place, or help them navi- gate the maze that all these groups and grants and government agencies create, but we will always try to do something. We have many fundraisers planned this year and will do our best to keep up with the demand, but it has been taxing on our staff and our board this year. We never expected a storm of this magnitude to put the volume of applicants in front of us, but we are doing exactly the same thing we have been doing for the last five years—that's just helping people, period. —Laura Webber Kerwin For help, or to make a donation to Hometown Heroes, call (732) 473-9400 or visit www.usahometownheroes.org. SANDY UPDATE The Hometown Heroes team. Victor Bubadias

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