For nearly five years now, a nondescript building inside the Camden County Health Department complex in Gloucester Township has been quietly running one of the county’s most closely watched experiments in fighting homelessness — not with more beds alone, but with a bet that shelter plus intensive case management produces better outcomes than shelter by itself.
The early results, released this week by the Camden County Board of Commissioners and its operating partner, Volunteers of America Delaware Valley, suggest the bet is paying off.
The Regan Center, a 23-bed men’s emergency shelter and medical respite facility, opened in October 2021 using CARES Act funding — built during the pandemic and the first shelter of its kind funded by the county commissioners. It combines a 15-bed emergency shelter with an 8-bed medical respite program for men recently discharged from hospitals, pairing both with case managers who work one-on-one with clients on financial planning, healthcare enrollment, employment and education resources, and mental health or substance use treatment.
Over its first five years, the center served 297 guests — 200 through the emergency shelter side and 97 through medical respite. The county’s tracking of what happened to those guests after their stay is where the program’s case gets made:
Among emergency shelter guests, 81% left with the identification documents needed to secure permanent housing, 96% were connected to behavioral health and substance use services, 79% were stably housed at discharge, 75% left with income, and 45% were connected with medical care.
Among medical respite guests — a group recovering from hospitalization, often with more complex health needs — 44% were discharged with housing-ready ID, 82% were linked to community-based case management, 81% were stably housed at discharge, 79% left with income, and 74% were discharged into housing situations based on a medical provider’s assessment of their needs.
“The success we have seen at the Regan Center is incredibly encouraging as we continue towards our goal of ending homelessness in Camden County once and for all,” Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr. said “When we provide an individual with a stable environment in conjunction with the necessary wraparound services, we give them the foundation they need to rebuild their lives.”
The center also has become a pipeline into employment.
Between 2023-26, 65 Regan Center guests enrolled in Work Now, a program that pairs paid day labor with access to support services. Four of those participants went on to secure full-time or part-time jobs with the Camden County Parks Department and the Camden County Board of Social Services.
“The Regan Center has filled a critical gap in our homelessness resources in Camden County and shown us what is possible when we collaborate with municipalities, and non-profit partners to provide support for these vulnerable individuals,” Robert Jakubowski, director of the Camden County Office of Community Development, said. “These outcomes underscore that when we work together, we can create real, lasting change for the people who need it most.”
The county isn’t treating the Regan Center as a finished project. A new three-year operating agreement between the county and Volunteers of America Delaware Valley took effect Aug. 1, with an option to extend two more years. And the center is being positioned as one piece of a larger, six-point county plan to end homelessness by 2030.
Two bigger facilities are already under construction as the next phase of that plan.
The $22 million Martin McKernan Supportive Housing Center, on the county’s Lakeland Campus in Gloucester Township, broke ground in 2025 and will add 60 units of non-congregate supportive housing along with job training, mental health services and permanent housing assistance.
In Camden City, the $8 million Camden County Multi-Agency Center will connect residents experiencing homelessness or substance use disorder with recovery resources.
“We are looking forward to building on this success with the addition of the Martin McKernan Supportive Housing Center, which we expect to cut the ribbon on later this year, and the Camden County Multi-Agency Center, which we expect will open in 2027,” Cappelli said. “Both of these facilities will aid our residents who are experiencing homelessness and help them receive the support they need to obtain permanent housing, job training, and mental health support.”
