Mayor Slams Bon Jovi for Turning NJ Town Into ‘Ground Zero’ for Homelessness

In Toms River, New Jersey, a battle is brewing between charity and community safety. Rock star Jon Bon Jovi’s nonprofit soup kitchen, JBJ Soul Kitchen, is drawing heavy criticism from Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick. The mayor claims that Bon Jovi’s well-meaning effort has turned the town’s public library into a magnet for homeless individuals from across the state and beyond, overwhelming local resources and putting families at risk.

What began as an effort to feed the needy has now sparked a major public controversy. According to Mayor Rodrick, this pop-up kitchen has caused more problems than it has solved. And in his words, “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.”

A Pop-Up Cafe with Big Consequences

The JBJ Soul Kitchen pop-up opened on February 11 inside the Ocean County Library in downtown Toms River. It offers meals to anyone who needs one, regardless of their ability to pay. Diners are encouraged to either pay a suggested $12 or volunteer in exchange for food. Bon Jovi and his wife Dorothea, who run the foundation, say the model is meant to help people regain dignity and access vital services like housing, mental health support, and employment assistance.

In a public statement, they explained, “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.” The couple insisted their goal is to help people thrive, not just survive.

But Mayor Rodrick says the consequences of this pop-up have been severe. He explained that after the warming center opened nearby, nonprofits began bringing in people from outside the area, and the soup kitchen only made the situation worse. “Since March, we’ve had dozens and dozens of people being dropped off downtown every single day at the library no less,” he told Fox News Digital.

Rodrick emphasized that the increase in homeless individuals has turned a once-safe family space into a disturbing environment. “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.”

From Good Intentions to Public Safety Risks

Rodrick said he does not believe Bon Jovi is acting with bad intentions. “I’m not accusing Jon Bon Jovi of being in this for profit. We all like his music. And I think he means well and what he’s doing is the right thing, trying to feed people,” he said. Still, he argues that good intentions are not enough when public safety is on the line.

The mayor described multiple incidents since the kitchen opened, including an overdose death on the library steps and an increase in emergency service calls. “Would you want to take your daughter to the library when somebody’s dying on the stairs?” he asked. “It certainly doesn’t sound like Toms River, that’s for sure.”

Rodrick is especially concerned that homeless individuals are being drawn in from outside the area. “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,” he said. “So they’re being bused in here, dumped here.”

He believes this influx is part of a larger system where nonprofits are incentivized to keep the homeless population growing. “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,” Rodrick said. “These agencies are making millions of dollars importing homeless. Their plan is not about compassion; it’s about people wanting to profit off the homeless issue.”

A Growing Industry Around the Homeless Problem

Rodrick didn’t name specific nonprofits, but he did point to one example where a charity operator reportedly brought in nearly $750,000 annually. “That’s just this little operator who handles 15 to 20 people at a time,” Rodrick said. “So you can only imagine how much money there is out there for this issue. When they call it the ‘homeless industrial complex,’ man, they’re not kidding. It’s a big problem.”

This, Rodrick says, is the real concern. By offering support without limits or coordination, these efforts may attract more people who are not getting the kind of structured help they need. “It’s a mental health problem, and it’s a substance abuse problem,” he said. “Feeding someone a sandwich doesn’t address the root causes. It just keeps them coming.”

Rodrick believes that some nonprofits have used the presence of homeless individuals to justify building permanent shelters in town. “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,” he warned. “It will drastically worsen the situation because then you’ll have people dropping people off in Toms River from all over the place.”

Bon Jovi’s Foundation Stands Firm

Despite the criticism, Bon Jovi and his wife are standing by their mission. “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,” they said in a statement. They also pushed back against Rodrick’s claims of a financial motive, saying, “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.”

Still, the mayor says the foundation and other nonprofits moved forward despite his objections. “They purposefully made the problem worse after me complaining that they were creating this public safety problem,” Rodrick said. He feels that his warnings were ignored, and that the pop-up “ran roughshod right over the municipality.”

Although the temporary cafe is scheduled to close on May 23, the mayor is not ruling out further action. He is exploring legal steps against certain nonprofits that he believes are creating a public nuisance and draining taxpayer resources. “This does not include Bon Jovi’s community kitchen,” he clarified, “but the township has spent money it shouldn’t have had to spend.”

A Larger Debate About How to Help

At the heart of this debate is a larger question: What is the right way to help people in need? Mayor Rodrick believes that simply offering food and services without limits can create more problems than it solves. “Everyone that we interact with is from outside the town, outside the county and, in some cases, outside the state of New Jersey,” he said. “We need the state to step up and create real solutions that don’t turn one town into the dumping ground for everyone else.”

While Bon Jovi’s foundation is trying to serve those in need, the mayor’s message is clear. If there is no coordination or accountability, these well-meaning efforts can turn into lasting problems. As Rodrick put it, “There’s a lot of money that chases around this issue, but not nearly enough real help.”

PB Editor: As Ronald Reagan once said, “Whatever you subsidize you get more of.” In this case, providing this minimal support for homeless people is getting in the way of their getting real help for their real problems.