Last Thursday we culminated a month long of city-wide demonstrations, led by organizers in the 30 Days for Homeless Rights Coalition, and said:
DE BLASIO: FIX YOUR FAILURES, HOUSE HOMELESS NEW YORKERS NOW!
Over 150 of us gathered at City Hall to call out Bill de Blasio on his failure to house people experiencing homelessness throughout his tenure as Mayor. Right now, unhoused New Yorkers are being rushed out of hotels and back into unhealthy congregate shelters that have low vaccination rates, even though new COVID-19 variants are as contagious as chickenpox per the CDC. More so, people who refuse to re-enter those unsafe shelters are forced to live on the street and are subject to NYPD "sweeps."
“I have been in a family shelter and in a single resident shelter, and single resident shelters are totally different,” said Rosalind Casillas, Case Manager for the Star 6 Program, Housing Works. “My partner was just transferred from a hotel to a single shelter. There is no help, no case managers, and no services. People are treated like they are incarcerated and the staff does not care. We need better options for people who qualify for programs and people who don’t, and we need a voucher system that works for the people who need it.”
The action included a rally and speakout of elected officials, people directly impacted by homelessness and the city shelter system, and other community leaders, including Assemblymember Harvey Epstein; Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas; Councilmember Brad Lander; Councilmember Stephen Levin; Future Councilmember Kristin Richardson Jordan; Deputy Public Advocate for Housing Delsenia Glover; 30 Days of Homeless Rights campaign co-creator and activist Shams DaBaron; Charles King, CEO of Housing Works; Jaron Benjamin, VP of Advocacy Housing Works; Housing Works Leader Shade Rivera; Housing Works Board Member Cesar Figueroa; and VOCAL-NY Leader Milton Perez. After the speakout, nine activists took to the streets and blocked Broadway for 45 minutes, where they broke vinyl records to symbolize the Mayor’s broken record on homelessness, resulting in their arrest for civil disobedience. All 9 activists were safely released.
The activists were demanding de Blasio to immediately put a stop to the transfers, stop ordering the NYPD to harass people who are experiencing homelessness, and to take emergency action on Intro 146, a bill to increase the value of housing vouchers and permanently house people experiencing homelessness.
The very next day, Mayor de Blasio announced the City is accelerating the implementation of Intro 146— to boost the value of CityFHEPS vouchers LINK to help homeless New Yorkers find a home— to September 1st! This is great news, but we are still fighting for the hotel to shelter transfers to stop.
Thank you again to all who joined the fight for homeless New Yorkers and made this rally possible!
Continue supporting from home by joining this phone zap on the Mayor to STOP the hotel to shelter transfers!