on Bon Jovi hits back at mayor who says JBJ Soul Kitchen is ‘ground zero’ for homeless

Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick has criticised the pop-up community restaurant

Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick, and Jon Bon Jovi
Author: Scott ColothanPublished 9th Apr 2025

Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi has hit back at a New Jersey mayor who has accused him of turning his town into a “ground zero for homelessness.”

Founded in October 2011 in Red Bank, New Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Kitchen is a community restaurant that gives low-income families and individuals the chance to enjoy a meal.

If people are unable to pay, they’re invited into the restaurant to enjoy a warm meal and learn about volunteering opportunities at JBJ Soul Kitchen.

Three further JBJ Soul Kitchens have since opened in New Jersey, including one at the BEAT Center in Toms River that launched in 2016.

However, Toms River Mayor Daniel Rodrick has taken issue with a new JBJ Soul Kitchen Pop Up that opened at Ocean County Library in the township on 11th February.

Voicing his frustration with the pop-up eatery, Mayor Rodrick complained to the New York Post: “These people are being dropped by in our community by agencies pretending to be homeless advocates who get paid by the head to import homeless people into our town from all over the state and the East Coast.

Jon Bon Jovi and Dorothea Bongiovi at the Toms River JBJ Soul Kitchen opening in 2016

“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.”

The Republican also blasted: “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. The state of New Jersey needs to step up and take care of this problem. They have the resources, and bussing people in from all over to Toms River is not a safe situation.

“(Jon Bon Jovi) is already operating, he operated something in the Silverton section of town. But it was like a restaurant where people go, and they pay for their meal, and they feel good that the money’s going to be used for something. But this pop-up thing at the library was primarily geared toward making the library, the public library, ground zero for homelessness.”

Jon Bon Jovi and his wife Dorothea, who run the nonprofit restaurant chain, told The New York Post they will continue to advocate for those less fortunate and the pop-up will remain open until May.

“The JBJ Soul Foundation and JBJ Soul Kitchen are committed to ending homelessness through real solutions. 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,” they told the New York Post.

“Through our JBJ Soul Kitchen, we connect people to resources and services. Whether they need employment, mental health support, or housing, we try to remove the barriers that are keeping them from thriving, not just surviving.”

Denouncing Mayor Daniel Rodrick’s funding claims, they added: “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.

“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.”

The childhood homes of famous rock stars, including Jon Bon Jovi:

1 of 24

Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s childhood home

Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s humble childhood home on Las Lunas Street in Pasadena, California. They moved to the property when their family emigrated from the Netherlands in 1962, and the brothers honed their musical craft in the garage at the rear of the property. Following Eddie Van Halen’s death in October 2020, the house became a shrine for Van Halen fans.

2 of 24

Angus and Malcolm Young’s childhood home

The youngest of eight siblings born in Scotland, Angus and Malcolm Young emigrated to Australia in 1963 with their parents William and Margaret and older brothers and sisters, including future AC/DC producer George. Initially living at the Villawood Migrant Hostel, in 1965 the Youngs moved to 4 Burleigh Street in the Sydney suburb of Burwood where Angus and Malcolm were raised. The brothers also formed AC/DC while living at the semi-detached house. Despite being added to Australia’s National Trust Register of Historic Houses in 2013, the house was “accidentally” demolished by developers in December 2024 to make way for a residential development.

3 of 24

Joe Elliott’s childhood home

Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott was born and raised at 61 Crookes Road in Sheffield. Ahead of Def Leppard’s homecoming gigs at The Leadmill and Bramall Lane in May 2023, Joe visited the property. He wrote: “The house I was born in, grew up in, met Sav & Tony Kenning for the very time in that upstairs room you can see above me …. Sigh …. Memories!!”

4 of 24

Ozzy Osbourne’s childhood home

One of six children, Ozzy Osbourne spent his formative years in this small two-bedroom terraced house on Lodge Road in Aston. Ozzy told Huffington Post in 2014: “I’ve been back to that house a few times over the years and I can’t believe there were eight of us living in a two-and-a-half-bedroom house. It is tiny! I have wardrobes bigger in my house.”

5 of 24

John Lennon’s childhood home

Now a lovingly restored Grade II listed building preserved by the National Trust, John Lennon lived at 251 Menlove Avenue in Liverpool with his Aunt Mimi from 1945 to 1963. It featured on the cover to Oasis single ‘Live Forever’ in 1994 and in 2000 it was adorned with an English Heritage blue plaque.

6 of 24

Paul McCartney’s childhood home

Sir Paul McCartney’s childhood home at 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, south Liverpool. It became a listed building in 2012 and is owned by the National Trust. The Trust markets the house as “the birthplace of the Beatles” as it was where McCartney and Lennon penned the earliest Beatles songs.

7 of 24

Ringo Starr’s childhood home

Ringo Starr (aka Richard Starkey) spent his very early childhood years at a terraced house on Madryn Street in Liverpool but moved to at two-up, two-down house 10 Admiral Grove in Dingle when he was 3 with mum Elsie when his parents separated. He lived there for the next 20 years. Pictured is 10 Admiral Grove in 1964.

8 of 24

David Bowie’s childhood home

40 Stansfield Road in Brixton where a young David Jones – aka David Bowie – lived until he was six years old. The house became a shrine for Bowie when the music legend died in January 2016.

9 of 24

Kurt Cobain’s childhood home

Kurt Cobain’s childhood home in Aberdeen, Washington. Nirvana fan Lee Bacon bought the house in 2018 for $225,000 (around £170,000) and told Rolling Stone: “My goal is to preserve and restore it for my generation and for my kids.”

10 of 24

Kurt Cobain’s childhood home

Kurt Cobain’s Led Zeppelin graffiti is still on the walls in his attic bedroom.

11 of 24

Little Richard’s childhood home

The late rock and roll pioneer was brought up alongside his eleven siblings in this detached home in the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood of Macon, Georgia in the 1930s and 40s. Now named The Little Richard Resource Center, the home is now open to the public and hosts a number of community events.

12 of 24

Bruce Springsteen’s childhood home

Bruce Springsteen grew up in this home at 39 1/2 Institute Street in Freehold, New Jersey from the years 1955 to 1962. It was while living at this house aged 7 in 1956 that Springsteen witnessed Elvis Presley on The Ed Sullivan Show and decided he wanted to be a musician himself.

13 of 24

Johnny Cash’s childhood home

Meticulously restored in 2014 thanks to funds from Arkansas State University, Johnny Cash’s boyhood home is in the tiny town of Dyess, Arkansas.

14 of 24

Jim Morrison’s childhood home

Jim Morrison’s home in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he lived in his teens while his dad worked at the nearby Kirtland Air Force Base.

15 of 24

Bono’s childhood home

Paul ‘Bono’ Hewson’s parents bought this house on Cedarwood Road, Dublin seven weeks after his birth in 1960 and he spent his entire childhood here. The U2 song ‘Cedarwood Road’ on their 2014 album ‘Songs of Innocence’ is a nostalgic musical celebration of Bono’s boyhood abode.

16 of 24

Freddie Mercury’s childhood home

Aged 17, Freddie Mercury and his family fled the Zanzibar revolution to live at 22 Gladstone Avenue in Feltham, West London. Pictured is Queen’s Brian May and Freddie’s younger sister Kashmira Cooke at the unveiling of a Blue Plaque at the house in September 2016.

17 of 24

Lars Ulrich’s childhood home

Lars Ulrich lived in this uniquely designed property in Hellerup, Denmark with his family until he moved to America aged 17.

18 of 24

Mick Jagger’s childhood home

Sir Mick Jagger was brought up in this semi-detached house in Dartford, Kent. His future bandmate Keith Richards lived just around the corner.

19 of 24

Keith Richards’ childhood home

Keith Richards spent the first six years of his life living in this two-bedroom flat above a florists in Dartford, Kent.

20 of 24

Axl Rose’s childhood home

Axl Rose lived at this humble Lafayette, Indiana house from 1962 to 1982 before moving to Los Angeles in his early twenties.

21 of 24

Marc Bolan’s childhood home

The young Mark Field (Marc Bolan) lived at this terraced property on Stoke Newington Common, London from his birth in 1947 to aged 15 in 1962. In 2005, the London Borough of Hackney honoured Bolan with a plaque outside the property.

22 of 24

Elvis Presley’s childhood home

The humble two-bedroom house in Tupelo, Mississippi where The King himself Elvis Presley was born on 8th January 1935. It was built by his father Vernon after he successfully secured a $180 loan.

23 of 24

Jon Bon Jovi’s childhood home

John Francis Bongiovi Jr.’s childhood home in Sayreville, New Jersey. Astonishingly, MTV bought the home in 1989 and gave it away in a competition. Jon Bon Jovi was reported to be “angry” at the publicity stunt and the competition winner soon sold the property.

24 of 24

Noel and Liam Gallagher’s childhood home

Soon after Liam’s birth, the Gallaghers moved to Ashby Avenue and then to Cranwell Drive in Burnage (pictured). With a violent and alcoholic father, Noel and his brothers had an unhappy childhood before mum Peggy left Thomas in 1982 with her three children.

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Jon Bon Jovi hits back at mayor who says JBJ Soul Kitchen is ‘ground zero’ for homeless

on Bon Jovi hits back at mayor who says JBJ Soul Kitchen is ‘ground zero’ for homeless