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PTH Participates in Press Conference Regarding the Closing of Peter's Place
Submitted by admin on Thu, 06/25/2009 - 21:20.
Speech given regarding the closing of Peter's Place by Joan Harrison, former resident of Peter's Place and Civil Rights Leader of Picture the Homeless during Wednesday's press conference on the steps of City Hall.
Wednesday June 24th, 2009
The recent media coverage of Peter's Place seems to confuse separate issues. One is the issue of the closing of Peter's Place. The other is the issue of the failure of Peter's Place to provide alternate living quarters for its residents. The latter complaint was voiced by many from the time I first resided at Peter's Place, and I was there for several months. Some seniors told me that they had been living at Peter's Place for several years. If improved accommodations had been made available, the closing of Peter's Place would probably be a matter of indifference.
And all that improved accommodations would have meant was something better than a single hard chair on which to sleep. For that was what there was at Peter's Place when I was there, and I left not that long ago--one single hard, often bug infested, chair per resident, with the strict prohibition against elevating our legs--at least without a doctor's note. That was the protocol not only for me but for the physically handicapped, of whom there were many, even, I am told, for amputees. I even remember a woman in her nineties forced to sleep that way. And even with a doctor's note, getting permission to elevate our legs was for some of us a nightly battle anyway.
If only a slightly better living arrangement elsewhere had been provided, and provided for all, the closing of Peter's Place would not be a source of outrage. It would be a cause for rejoicing. Even when Peter's Place was open, however, the issue of improved lodging was a persistent one. What is to be lamented and fought against, therefore, is not the closing of Peter's Place at all, rather, it is the refusal of otherwise intelligent administrators to provide alternate safe, clean living quarters.
What then is to be done? Frail and handicapped seniors are obviously not going to occupy the building and demand their rights or go on a hunger strike until their demands are met. Yet they should do something dramatic because the closing of Peter's Place is only a small part of a much larger city wide excising of programs for seniors. A petition signed by all or most residents, however, would seem within the realm of possibility--a petition addressed to the mayor requesting--if I may be so bold as to make a suggestion--sleep stamps on the model of food stamps--sleep stamps for the use of a clean private bed in a clean private room as an interim measure until housing becomes available. That would seem a far wiser use of all the millions of dollars now being poured into the failed shelter system.
Picture the Homeless has documented that there is enough empty living space in Manhattan alone to house every homeless person in all five boroughs. From what I gather, many of the homeless would be only too eager to help with renovating that space, even by planting trees and gardens. There is no excuse for even one homeless New Yorker to be driven into the streets.
By petitioning the mayor and remaining vocal until their aims are achieved, the residents of Peter's Place could provide a model for other New York seniors, indeed, a model for homeless people everywhere.
Yet where are they to sleep in the meantime? If no emergency lodging is provided, I say, "Make a virtue of necessity." By rejecting, through an organized boycott, all the herding, degradation, and bureaucratic abuse of the city shelters and drop in centers, and by not only sleeping in the streets but making themselves as visible as possible doing so, the residents of Peter's Place would send a powerful message about the need for and the right not only to sleep but also to dignity.
Homeless voices need to be heard. If through the principle of non-violent non-cooperation Gandhi and his followers moved the British Empire out of India, by following that same principle the homeless of New York City, particularly seniors with all their spirit, will surely be able to move one mayor to show a bit of noblesse oblige.
And all that improved accommodations would have meant was something better than a single hard chair on which to sleep. For that was what there was at Peter's Place when I was there, and I left not that long ago--one single hard, often bug infested, chair per resident, with the strict prohibition against elevating our legs--at least without a doctor's note. That was the protocol not only for me but for the physically handicapped, of whom there were many, even, I am told, for amputees. I even remember a woman in her nineties forced to sleep that way. And even with a doctor's note, getting permission to elevate our legs was for some of us a nightly battle anyway.
If only a slightly better living arrangement elsewhere had been provided, and provided for all, the closing of Peter's Place would not be a source of outrage. It would be a cause for rejoicing. Even when Peter's Place was open, however, the issue of improved lodging was a persistent one. What is to be lamented and fought against, therefore, is not the closing of Peter's Place at all, rather, it is the refusal of otherwise intelligent administrators to provide alternate safe, clean living quarters.
What then is to be done? Frail and handicapped seniors are obviously not going to occupy the building and demand their rights or go on a hunger strike until their demands are met. Yet they should do something dramatic because the closing of Peter's Place is only a small part of a much larger city wide excising of programs for seniors. A petition signed by all or most residents, however, would seem within the realm of possibility--a petition addressed to the mayor requesting--if I may be so bold as to make a suggestion--sleep stamps on the model of food stamps--sleep stamps for the use of a clean private bed in a clean private room as an interim measure until housing becomes available. That would seem a far wiser use of all the millions of dollars now being poured into the failed shelter system.
Picture the Homeless has documented that there is enough empty living space in Manhattan alone to house every homeless person in all five boroughs. From what I gather, many of the homeless would be only too eager to help with renovating that space, even by planting trees and gardens. There is no excuse for even one homeless New Yorker to be driven into the streets.
By petitioning the mayor and remaining vocal until their aims are achieved, the residents of Peter's Place could provide a model for other New York seniors, indeed, a model for homeless people everywhere.
Yet where are they to sleep in the meantime? If no emergency lodging is provided, I say, "Make a virtue of necessity." By rejecting, through an organized boycott, all the herding, degradation, and bureaucratic abuse of the city shelters and drop in centers, and by not only sleeping in the streets but making themselves as visible as possible doing so, the residents of Peter's Place would send a powerful message about the need for and the right not only to sleep but also to dignity.
Homeless voices need to be heard. If through the principle of non-violent non-cooperation Gandhi and his followers moved the British Empire out of India, by following that same principle the homeless of New York City, particularly seniors with all their spirit, will surely be able to move one mayor to show a bit of noblesse oblige.
Joan Harrison
Civil Rights Committee
Picture The Homeless
Click HERE for a video clip of Joan Harrison's Speech during the Peter's Place Press Conference at City Hall
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