Cumberland County freeholders voted Tuesday to create a trust fund to help the homeless find places to live.
The freeholders voted 6-1 to adopt an ordinance that adds a $3 surcharge on each document recorded by the county Clerk’s Office.
The money from that fee will be put toward the Homelessness Trust Fund. It will help social-service organizations use housing projects, rental assistance and “preventative services to obtain or maintain permanent affordable housing,” the ordinance states.
County officials said the $3 fee could raise about $75,000 a year.
The trust fund will be overseen by a Homelessness Task Force. The panel will have up to 15 members. At least three of those members will be homeless or formerly homeless people. The three municipalities with the largest number of homeless residents will each have one representative on the task force.
Volunteers in the county and the rest of the state last month participated in the annual count of the homeless. The results of the count won’t be available for several weeks, county officials said.