From ID Cards to Jobs: Atlantic City Expands Effort to Move People Out of Homelessness

ATLANTIC CITY — Getting someone off the street can involve far more than finding an available bed.

What if that person doesn't have a birth certificate? Or a Social Security card? How do they get a job without the documents an employer requires? And without income, how do they move toward stable housing?

Those are among the barriers Atlantic City officials say they are trying to address as the city prepares for a World Homeless Day outreach event Oct. 10, bringing health, identification and other services directly to people experiencing homelessness.

Atlantic City Health and Human Services Director Jarrod Barnes discussed the initiative during a recent appearance on The AC Mike Lopez Show on News Talk 1400 and 92.3 WOND, with Atlantic City Public Safety Director Sean Riggin filling in as guest host.

Barnes said the event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 10 at Civil Rights Park, between South Carolina and North Carolina avenues.

“We will have different resources, different tables out there for our unhoused population,” Barnes said.

That includes vaccinations and help obtaining some of the most basic documents needed to get back into the workforce.

“If they are having any issues with getting a birth certificate, Social Security card, we will have all those resources out there for them on that day,” Barnes said.

Riggin: The Goal Is Getting People Out of Homelessness

Riggin used the discussion to address a criticism sometimes directed at programs providing services to people living on the streets.

“These services that we provide are not provided to make the homeless more comfortable or some of those things that people say,” Riggin said.

Instead, he said, the objective is to eliminate obstacles preventing people from becoming self-sufficient.

“Folks that are homeless are gonna be homeless until they get the services that they need, they get a job and they become unhomeless,” Riggin said.

Something as basic as replacing a missing identification document can become part of that process.

“The only way to do that is for them to be able to have a job, in which case you need a Social Security card,” Riggin said.

Health is another piece.

“The only way they're gonna be able to do that is if they're healthy,” Riggin said. “And the only way they're gonna be healthy is if they get vaccination.”

Riggin said the city's approach isn't intended to “coddle anybody,” but rather to deal with the circumstances that keep people on the streets.

“We know that we have folks in our community that do not have a home,” he said. “And so they end up on our streets.”

Riggin also acknowledged that street homelessness affects more than the people experiencing it.

“We know that that is incredibly difficult for them, but it's also difficult for the residents and the business owners that are there as well,” he said.

“The only solution that we have for those folks is to try to help them out of the place where they're at.”

Barnes agreed.

“You hit it right on the head,” he told Riggin.

Hundreds Counted as Homeless in Atlantic City

The challenge facing the city is substantial.

The 2025 Point-in-Time Count, an annual snapshot of homelessness conducted in January, identified 682 people experiencing homelessness in Atlantic County, including 275 who were unsheltered.

Of those whose municipality was identified, 454 were counted in Atlantic City, including 226 unsheltered people and 228 in shelters.

The report also found Atlantic County's identified homeless population had increased by 109% between 2021 and 2025.

Point-in-Time counts are snapshots rather than a count of every person who experiences homelessness during an entire year, but they provide a standardized way to measure the problem over time.

Atlantic City Has Already Tried Putting People to Work

The upcoming event fits into a broader city strategy that has increasingly emphasized employment and services rather than simply moving people from one location to another.

In November 2024, Atlantic City launched its Hope Work Initiative, offering temporary Public Works jobs to 10 people experiencing homelessness who had been encountered by the city's Homeless Outreach unit.

Participants worked 15 hours per week — five hours a day, three days a week — in Beach and Boardwalk, Sanitation and Building Maintenance operations. They earned $75 per day through funding from the city's opioid settlement money, according to the city.

At the time, Barnes said the city's outreach team was working daily to connect people experiencing homelessness with assistance.

That approach — combining outreach with employment, health services, documentation and other resources — is also reflected in the city's re-entry programs. An April 2026 resource fair, for example, offered job and training programs, housing and homelessness services, Medicaid and health information, mental-health and recovery resources and assistance with public benefits.

The city's 2026 State of the City materials also specifically identified a World Homeless Day event as part of Atlantic City's homelessness-prevention efforts.

‘Public Health Is Public Safety’

Barnes' department encompasses far more than homelessness services.

During the WOND interview, he described divisions covering environmental health, vital statistics, youth services, recreation, multicultural services, senior services, anti-violence, re-entry and community engagement.

Riggin said that breadth is one reason Health and Human Services and Public Safety increasingly find themselves working together.

“Public health is public safety,” Riggin said.

He said crime and social disorder cannot always be addressed solely through policing.

Riggin pointed to poverty and what he described as low “social capital” — weak connections among people within neighborhoods — as conditions frequently associated with crime.

Programs that help people find financial independence or strengthen connections within neighborhoods can therefore become part of a broader public-safety strategy, he said.

“It either helps people to find financial independence, which is what they need to be safe and to stay off the street and to stay, you know, gainfully employed,” Riggin said, “or to connect our neighbors to each other.”

Barnes said Atlantic City attempts to provide consistent programs rather than isolated events.

“We're always going to provide resources for them,” Barnes said of the city's youth and seniors. “We're always going to provide programs for them. Consistent programming as well.”

“There is always something to do here for all of our residents,” he added.

The Next Step Comes Oct. 10

Barnes was careful not to describe the World Homeless Day event as a celebration.

“It's really not a celebration,” he said. “It's more of bringing an awareness to World Homeless Day.”

For someone living on the street, however, the practical assistance available that day could be more consequential than awareness alone.

A replacement birth certificate or Social Security card doesn't provide a home.

Neither does a vaccination.

But city officials argue those relatively small steps can remove barriers standing between someone experiencing homelessness and a job, services and eventually stable housing.

“We're trying to help people get out of the place where they're at,” Riggin said, “because it's bad for everybody for them to be there.”

The Atlantic City World Homeless Day event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 10 at Civil Rights Park, between South Carolina and North Carolina avenues.

The interview aired on The AC Mike Lopez Show on News Talk 1400 and 92.3 WOND. The show airs Monday through Friday from noon to 1 p.m.