By Donna Lamb

Even when a grassroots not-for-profit organization is formed to promote a popular social cause and easily attracts mainstream members and backers, it's still an amazing feat for it to reach tens years of existence. It’s even more phenomenal when an organization founded to promote a decidedly unpopular cause regarding a segment of the population that is stigmatized and feared makes it to the ten-year mark. Well, Picture the Homeless (PTH) has accomplished just that, and on a recent Tuesday evening, a few hundred very jubilant members and supporters gathered at Judson Memorial Church (above) to celebrate the organization’s 10^th anniversary.

As PTH co-founder Anthony Williams (right) recounted, it all started in the fall of 1999 while Lewis Haggins Jr. (now deceased) and he were staying in Bellevue Men's Shelter. When a woman in midtown Manhattan was hit with a brick, it was immediately assumed that a homeless person had done it. Giuliani held a press conference saying that "we've got to get those crazies off the street," and homeless men were rounded up in droves and put through the justice system.

As it turned out, the man who actually threw the brick was not homeless, but Williams and Haggins had had enough. The public’s ideas about the homeless had to change. They decided to found Picture the Homeless to challenge images, stigma and media misrepresentation as well as to mobilize for social justice around the issues of housing, gentrification, the shelter-industrial complex and police violence and selective enforcement against the homeless.

And the rest is history. Under the very able leadership of Lynn Lewis (left) and other dedicated members and advocates, over the next decade Picture the Homeless went on to become a highly effective and respected organization that has had an enormously positive impact by developing leaders, advocating for sound policies, and creating space for homeless people and their agenda within the broader social justice movement.

When she took the podium, Ms. Lewis spoke with great feeling about the organization’s members – "Folks who are living without a home or private space in which to collect their thoughts or share time with loved ones, subjected to arrest or being set on fire or beaten, arrested by police, or simply the averted eyes of others. Folks who open the daily newspapers only to see themselves used by the media and elected officials as symbols of social disorder, labeled criminals and dangerous." But these same folks, she went on, continue to believe that they can effect change, and they take the necessary action to do so, providing a great example for all people to follow.

Lewis concluded passionately, "When folks say we need programs to integrate homeless people back into society, we say, ‘Homeless people are already part of society because losing your home does not mean you have lost your humanity or place in this world.’"

During the evening, Jean Rice (right), a founding PTH board member and leader of the organization’s Civil Rights Campaign for the past eight years, became the first recipient of the Member Leader Each One Teach One to Reach One Award. "From his backpack full of books, legal pads full of notes, bags of cans, historical references, countless hats rakishly worn, and ready intellect, it is hard to imagine Picture the Homeless without Jean Rice," Anthony Williams stated as he presented the award.

Also honored was noted community and human rights activist Brenda Stokely , who has always found time in her busy schedule to mentor PTH staff and leaders. The family of Lewis Haggins presented her with the Lewis "Lou" Haggins Social Justice Warrior Award "for her passion, humanity and willingness to take on any risk in the service of justice."

With his colleague City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito in attendance as well, Council Member Charles Barron presented Stokely (left with Councilman Charles Barron) with a proclamation from Council Member Letitia James along with citations from State Assemblywoman Inez Barron and from his own office.

Throughout the evening, guests enjoyed refreshments provided by The Works Catering, Chef Michael Ennes of Broadway Community Inc. and Judson Memorial Church congregants. The Welfare Poets (right) brought information and inspiration to the event through their musical performances that incorporated hip-hop, Latin jazz, bomba, plena and guaguanco, while PTH member John Jones also thrilled the audience with his rendition of Sam Cook’s "A Change Is Gonna Come." The evening concluded on the dance floor with music provided by DJ Jean Shephard.