Picture the Homeless

The issues of the Canners' Committee impacts immigrant and "native born" New Yorkers, primarily African American, Latino and Asian subsistence workers. Although the majority of canners are men, there is a significant number of women canners, especially the among Latino and Asian communities. Canners range in age from children that help their parents to seniors in their '70's.

It is estimated that a minimum of 1,000 New Yorkers depend on collecting cans, bottles and plastics as a means of economic survival. This number fluctuates upward based on season, weather, and during sporting, political or cultural events. For many, canning is the only source of income. Common reasons cited for "picking up cans" are difficulties in accessing the formal job market, such as immigration status, incarceration history, age, lack of marketable skills, language, problems with welfare, and in some cases a preference for independence from the welfare system. The income of most homeless canners' however, does not suffice to afford housing although historically many older canners report being able to rent rooms on income generated by canning.

A major reason for the low earnings from canning is that the vast majority of stores violate the existing NYS Bottle Bill. Stores that sell recyclable beverages usually accept only a fraction of the amount of containers than the 240 that NYS law requires them to accept, $12 worth of cans, bottles or plastics. Store managers arbitrarily decide how much to allow them to redeem, (offering to give take 20 cans for $1.00 for example) a clear violation of NYS law. Many supermarkets make Canners wait for hours outside of the store or verbally abuse them. The redemption of the recyclables at supermarkets is an unnecessarily time-consuming process for Canners that violates their rights while significantly decreases their possibilities of making a living wage.

The Canners' Committee builds upon our organizing campaigns and is informed by leaders of PTH who are themselves Canners and who have built their leadership skills through participation in other campaigns. The Canners Committee addresses a root cause of homelessness - the economic obstacles to generate a living-wage income, it targets the stigmatization of these subsistence workers, fights to ensure that the law protecting these workers is enforced, works to end the criminalization of Canners, and highlights the disparities between what the poorest workers earn and the cost of housing.

Canning issues first surfaced at PTH in early 2001. One of the first initiatives of the new Bloomberg administration was his attempt to end recycling - which brought homeless Canners into PTH who wanted to defend their livelihood and their community, as well as to fight the police harassment that they faced as Canners, homeless people and people of color. The Canners Committee is an example of our organizing methodology: we are connected to networks of canners who keep in touch with our work through leaders who take information out to the streets as well as bring information back to inform our work.

PTH was at the initial stages of our development in early 2001 and Canners joined our Civil Rights Campaign - at the time our only Campaign. They were moved by self interest as their working conditions often led to violations of their civil rights in public spaces. Homeless Canners often sleep outside since their working hours conflict with shelter curfews, and their equipment - shopping carts, poles, box cutters and knives - cannot be taken into shelters. As a result they face police harassment through Quality-Of-Life ticketing. Canners have been meeting at PTH to build the Canning Committee since December 2004, identifying goals and planning strategies to take action.