N.J.'s Priority Housing Wait List at 8,000

TOMS RIVER, N.J. -- Mike Festa is beaten down and losing hope that his son will be all right when he is gone.
It’s evident in the folder overstuffed with hundreds of documents that he keeps in the basement of his Toms River home, in his voice when he dials Trenton searching for answers, in his sigh as he describes the thousands of hours spent in a decade-long fight to find a suitable home for his 35-year-old autistic son, Michael.
Michael is sweet and sociable but subject to seizures and incapable of living on his own. He lives with his parents, who are his around-the-clock caretakers, but who also know they need to find a home that will provide for their son when they no longer can.
"How much time do I have?" asked Festa, who is 61. "I don’t know. My wife and I can pass any time. If we do, Michael becomes an emergency ward of the state, and then they put him anywhere."