Picture the Homeless

Operation Cardboard Box was developed by our civil rights leadership in early 2004. The RNC for homeless New Yorkers began months in advance as police started using more aggressive tactics to move homeless New Yorkers from the area around Penn Station and it was clear that we needed to organize to minimize the potential negative impact on our community and prevent unchecked violations of the civil rights and civil liberties before and during the RNC. To this end we developed a network of over 40 faith based groups, and service providers, convening meetings with key stakeholders including the NYPD, RNC convention planners and the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), while simultaneously conducting over 200 in depth surveys of homeless New Yorkers regarding their interactions with police to monitor police conduct in the midtown area.

"We don't want to go to jail,
We just want to get our mail!"

"Call off your dogs and let us go,
We're just here to get our dough!"
My name is Bruce Little, and I am a member of Picture the Homeless. I would like to say that Operation Cardboard Box is a way that we, who care about homeless New Yorkers around Madison Square Garden, can come together and make a safe space for homeless New Yorkers. We are asking that a ban be lifted off the parks curfews so that homeless New Yorkers that do not want to go into a drop in center or shelter could have a safe space to be.

We at Picture the Homeless would like to make sure that the homeless community can go on with our way of life. You have the elderly, the poor and the homeless. People pick up cans as a way to take care of themselves. Some homeless New Yorkers go to Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen to eat. That soup kitchen feeds 1,200 people every day, five days a week. Some people get mail at the general delivery post office. On the 1st and 3rd days of the month the checks come out – now when Bush comes to town will those people that count of the general post office will they be able to pick up their mail.

We are Picture the Homeless are asking to meet with Commissioner Linda Gibbs at DHS and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly so that we can be an asset to the Commissioners.

Through our organizing efforts, homeless New Yorkers directly impacted by the RNC had a seat at the table, identifying critical issues such as getting a commitment from the NYPD to accept public benefits cards as a valid form of ID to enter the frozen zone, and access to the General Delivery Post Office on Sept 1, which was located in the frozen zone. We actually moved the Postal Service to extend their hours that day and conducted intensive outreach so that folks would be prepared on Sept 1. As a result, we ensured that on Sept. 1, over 400 of the poorest New Yorkers were able to access the General Delivery Post Office to pick up their government checks that they have earned in the midst of thousands of secret service, NYPD, and Postal Police.


When the Division of Parole illegally tried to prevent parolees from entering Manhattan, we worked with the NYCLU and the Unlock the Block Coalition to overturn this illegal policy literally overnight. We also created safe spaces for homeless folks who usually stay on the street in midtown by building a sanctuary network of churches in midtown outside of the frozen zone. Leaders at Picture the Homeless coordinated this effort and volunteered day and night to let folks know about this option and each night to provide security.

Finally, Picture the Homeless worked closely with the Still We Rise Coalition to ensure that issues critical to homeless New Yorkers were included in the coalition platform and to create a space within the social justice community at large for homeless New Yorkers.