From drug addicted and living under the boardwalk to managing Toms River homeless shelter

TOMS RIVER - Earlier this month, as the temperature plummeted into the teens, a homeless woman in an agitated state came into the “Code Blue” emergency overnight shelter at the Riverwood Park recreation center.

“She was extremely intoxicated,” shelter manager Kevin McKenna said. “She had a rough day out there, she was angry and she was drinking.”

McKenna helped her calm down. She didn’t stay the night, but she returned the following evening in better condition.

“She thanked me and apologized,” McKenna said.

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No apology was necessary. McKenna gets it. Once homeless and addicted to drugs, he spent the winter of 2016 living under Atlantic City’s boardwalk. It was a brutal experience, but it prepared him for his current station.

“It helps me connect to these people on a level most people can’t,” the 38-year-old said Tuesday, as dusk gathered on another Code Blue night. “Everybody knows my story there.”

McKenna’s work at Riverwood Park, which he does on behalf of the nonprofit Just Believe Inc., would be a good story on its own. Now his mission is expanding to include a second Code Blue shelter in Toms River, this one strictly for families.

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In Toms River, Code Blue centers open on nights when the temperature hits 35 degrees or below. The new site, which opened the night of the Jan. 19 snowstorm, is a former youth emergency shelter run by another local nonprofit, Ocean’s Harbor House.

If all goes well, the family shelter’s operating status will shift from Code Blue-only to permanent later this year. That would be a first in Ocean County.

“The goal is not just to create an environment where people are comfortable,” said Paul Hulse, Just Believe Inc.’s founder. “It’s to create an environment where they’re getting help.”

McKenna seems uniquely suited to the task.

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A wakeup call

After surviving the 2016 winter outdoors, McKenna entered addiction recovery and began climbing out of the abyss. He relapsed in 2022, doing heroin and getting arrested for driving under the influence. The incident cost him visitation rights with his young daughter.

“I was completely broken,” he said. “It was my wakeup call.”

After graduating from New Hope Foundation’s 12-step program in Marlboro, McKenna saw a Facebook post by Just Believe Inc. seeking financial support for the Code Blue shelter. He reached out to Hulse about it.

“I told him, ‘I can’t donate any money, but I’ve got all the time in the world right now,’” McKenna said. “He said, 'Cool, come in tomorrow at 4:30.'”

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After that first shift as a volunteer, McKenna asked Hulse for a favor. He was out of gas and out of money. He couldn’t get home. Hulse filled his tank, and McKenna kept coming back. After a few months, Hulse hired him to Just Believe Inc.'s staff.

“You can’t teach that compassion and empathy that he has,” Hulse said. “He’s been there, so his heart’s in it. He never saw the good in himself, but I do. Now he’s starting to see it himself because he sees the fruit that’s coming from the work.”

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Like Miko, for example. Last year at this time, Miko was homeless and couch-surfing while battling drug addiction. McKenna got her into a recovery program.

“When I first came to the warming center Kevin was welcoming and comforting,” said Miko, whose last name is being withheld for security purposes. “Since then he’s been a constant in my life. By watching him go through his process in recovery, it reminded me of how to get my grip again.”

Now Miko works full-time in engineering and resides in a sober-living house in Lakewood (something McKenna also connected her with). She’s got full faith that his positive influence will rub off on families at the new Code Blue site.

“Everybody who comes through the shelter knows him and trust him,” she said. “I don’t think I would have made it as far as I have without him. He’s my biggest supporter, my biggest cheerleader.”

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'An opportunity to do more'

Code Blue has come a long way in Toms River since Hulse took the reins in 2017 on a shoestring budget — no budget, really — in the basement of a church. Now the Riverwood Park site hosts 30 to 40 people per night and connects them with a range of social services. It’s often full, necessitating the new family shelter.

“The pain, the suffering, the losses we’ve gone through — the people who have lost their lives because we couldn’t do more — this gives us an opportunity to do more,” Hulse said. “I know this is only one step, but I remember when we took that first step — and I am so thankful we can take this step.”

The partnership with Ocean's Harbor House comes at a perfect time. When its youth shelter closed last summer after 35 years — state funding ran out — executive director Alice Woods was looking to make the best possible use of the charity's well-appointed, spacious ranch home.

“We are planning to open this as a permanent family shelter once we get through the zoning process in Toms River, which could take several months,” Woods said, noting that stays would last three to six months. “In the meantime, this is a good partnership.”

The house can accommodate five or six families, up to 18 people total at a time.

“It’s exciting, the fact that they can have a home setting,” McKenna said. “You go from a room (at Riverwood Park) filled with 30 cots to this. You can sit on the couch and watch TV, you can take a shower whenever you want. It’s a much more relaxed environment.”

Six people stayed there last week. McKenna got two of them into recovery programs and helped one find permanent housing. The kicker: He’ll have an occasional assist from Miko, who volunteers on Code Blue nights when she can.

“Every time I see her I tell her, she’s my beacon of light,” McKenna said. “It’s a blessing and it’s an inspiration to the other clients, too.”

This is McKenna’s calling now. He’s back to seeing his daughter, age 7, every other weekend. He’s living in Waretown. When doubt creeps in, he looks in the mirror and repeats positive affirmations.

“I’m loved, I’m accepted, I’m worthy,” he says. “I’m going to get through this.”

It’s a belief he tries to impress upon folks coming into the shelter who feel like their hurdles are too high.

“I know what that’s like,” he said. “If your perception changes, over time, everything changes.”

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Toms River opens second Code Blue shelter, this for homeless families