hanting
"No More Bull: We Want Housing!" and other slogans, dozens of homeless New
Yorkers held a noontime rally last week in lower Manhattan at the Merrill
Lynch bull, a symbol of New York’s economy. The protestors were demanding
that the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) 1) place more homeless
people into homes and less into SRO’s (single room occupancies) and
shelters 2) provide accountability for its $600 million budget, and 3)
give homeless people a voice in DHS’s decision-making and in general work
with the homeless to produce solutions to the present housing crisis.
One demonstrator who’s lived in shelters for years said that DHS is
paying $10,000 a month for her to be in a shelter program away from her
children. That money, she remarked, would have been much better used to
house her and her children.
Others agreed. "DHS spent more than half a billion dollars last year,
and what have they got to show us?" asked Owen Rogers, a veteran of
DHS-contracted shelters and member of Picture the Homeless, a group that
organizes homeless people to fight for social justice. He went on to say
that half that money could have built housing and then paid rent for
every one of New York’s homeless population. "But DHS doesn’t think that
way," he declared. "It’s about maintaining the status quo and building
its own engorged bureaucracy."
Addressing
the failure of DHS’s Commissioner Linda Gibbs to make housing a top
priority, Rogers stated emphatically, "Nobody wants to live in a
shelter. I challenge Linda Gibbs to try living in one for the months and
years it takes to get placed into housing. After a week she’d be out
here with us fighting for housing, not shelters!"
Picture the Homeless then led the demonstrators in a peaceful march
to DHS’s offices at 33 Beaver Street where, for half an hour, the lobby
became their home as they attempted to deliver their list of demands to
Gibbs.
Assistant Commissioner Robert Mascali met briefly with the advocates,
saying that he would deliver the demands to Commissioner Gibbs. "But,"
he added, "DHS has already put together a plan to end homelessness in
the next 10 years."
This plan - which was supposed to be released last April and which
totally lacks input from the tens of thousands of homeless people DHS
serves - is due to be released within the next month.
