LONGEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR MARKED BY PICTURE THE HOMELESS

n the longest night of the year, Judson Memorial Church, which has a history of supporting emerging cultural and progressive organizations in New York City, opened its sanctuary for a program to mark National Homeless Memorial Day. The program was sponsored by the growing grass roots organization Picture the Homeless in conjunction with the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Picture the Homeless (PTH), which recently received a Union Square Award for its outstanding volunteer achievements, is the only organization in this city led by people who have been or are homeless. They organize to educate themselves and other homeless people about their rights, and they work collectively to change policies that oppress homeless persons. Last month PTH made history by filing a lawsuit in Manhattan's Federal District Court to stop laws from being selectively enforced against homeless individuals.

The program opened with welcoming remarks by Judson's Associate Pastor, Karen Senecal. It was then mc’d by Prince, a member of PTH's Board of Directors. He introduced speakers who told of their own experience being homeless - harassment by the police, feeling marginalized, the stereotypes people have of them. Throughout the afternoon persons who had died were honored, and many persons spoke of individuals they were grateful to for helping them make it through.

Prince, who was homeless for 18 years, recalled how he felt when he first lost his home. There he was one winter, sitting on a subway platform not having eaten in 3 days. "I didn't know what to do or where to go to get services," he said. "All I knew was that I was hungry and scared and cold." He was grateful when 2 other homeless men came over and gave him guidance about how to survive because "when you're homeless, nobody sees you."

He explained, too, how homelessness claimed the lives of these men who became so dear to him. One froze to death in a basement. The other had a kidney operation, and afterwards, instead of providing him with the services he needed, they just released him back onto the street with no place to go. He ended up dying in the back of a car. Homelessness kills.

Prince's very moving narrative was followed by the comments of Jean Rice, also on PTH's Board of Directors. "I was a member of the homeless community for about 8 years until someone came and got me out of my cardboard box, and I resolved never to go back," he said.

Rice spoke very critically of the atmosphere Mayor Bloomberg has created that says it's ok to dehumanize homeless people. He asked people in the audience who have homes to do everything they can to help break down the stereotypes of the homeless that are so prevalent. "In the newspapers," he remarked, "every negative image is enlarged and gets mass coverage. But when we take our time and energy to write to editorial boards, it's hard to get anything published."

Rice also gave credit to the courageous police officers who have objected to the selective enforcement policies being carried out in this City. He drew applause when he stated, "I'm glad to say that there are some well-intentioned police who have put their jobs on the line by refusing to continue to criminalize homeless people and lock them up for no crime other than being homeless."

Another person who spoke was Mike. He has great computer skills and is trying hard to find work in that area. He has been homeless for about 9 months. He commented, "The biggest thing for me about being homeless and homeless people is, we're still human. We're not garbage, we're not dirt, we're not trash." And he told of how, when you're homeless, you can be in a public space doing the same thing other people are - like sitting, reading a book - but a police officer comes up to you and harasses you just because you're homeless.

Mike said, too, that since he's served quite a few years in the army, he wanted to comment on the possible war on Iraq. "Before we go to any other country and say, 'We're going to invade you because you don't know how to treat people,' we need to start right here and learn how to treat people," he stated.

At one point in the program, people in the audience were asked to come forward with solutions to homelessness. One Judson Church member who spoke strongly was Robert Thomason. He was deeply affected by what people had expressed about homelessness being considered a crime. "The real crime is being committed by our government against the homeless," he declared. "To try to act like a person is committing a crime by not having a home is ridiculous! It's up to us to put pressure on our representatives to supply housing."

Thomason also noted that he was recently in Scandinavia where it was extremely difficult to find a homeless person. "But here in the United States, the richest country on earth, it's so easy to find homeless people." And he said passionately, "I am ashamed that this country has not provided a home for every one of its citizens."

Rocio Rayo, who is 21, believes a solution is to discuss society's problems. "But people don't want to talk about homelessness," she observed. "People would rather not think about it, and they don't have to because it's not a problem they endure." And she said that the only way conversations will take place on this subject is if we don't rely on others to bring it up but do so ourselves and voice our opinions about it.

Prince also told of being harassed by a policeman on the subway, but when some people on the train questioned what the cop was doing, he backed down. "What I'm saying to you people here is, you need to speak up for the homeless. Don't be silent. You can't be deaf and dumb."

In the final part of the program, PTH's Co-director Lynn Lewis pointed out that New York counts people in the shelter system - of which there are 37,000 - but those on the street are not counted except through arrests, so we can only imagine how many homeless people there really are. Yet, there doesn't have to be one person without a home because the city owns almost 100,000 empty apartments and buildings. "So," she announced, "we have a lot of work to do!"

Throughout the afternoon, the artistic talents of some Picture the Homeless members were featured as well. Carlos read 2 of his poems, and organizer Herbert Bennett, Sr. sang "Oh Come All Ye Faithful." He closed the program with "Silent Night," joined by the audience. Following that, everyone enjoyed refreshments and informal discussion of the meaningful statements they had heard.