Picture the Homeless

On October 24th, 2005, for the first time since the birth of the modern human rights system over half of century ago, a United Nations expert began a formal visit to the United States to document extreme poverty and the underlying human rights violations that create it. Mr. Arjun Sengupta, the U.N. Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty began his visit at Picture the Homeless, a grassroots group founded and led by homeless people organizing for social change. Mr. Sengupta met and spoke with homeless community leaders, as well as community leaders working on worker's rights, immigrant rights, welfare rights, and food and income security. The testimonies from this extraordinary meeting between poor New Yorkers and a renowned international expert show that poverty is neither inevitable nor impossible to abolish. They also show that only by abolishing poverty will we be able to ensure the human rights of all people in this country.
The role of U.N. Independent Experts is to document the conditions and experiences of the people they visit, undertake research to understand the reason for those conditions, and report back to the international community the human rights situation they observe. We have great expectations that Mr. Sengupta will let the international community know about the deeply unnecessary and egregious human rights violations that extreme poverty represents in the United States. We welcome international support for our struggle to abolish poverty and social exclusion, as it is part of a global struggle to create a community of nations grounded in the principles of peace and human rights.
The October 24th meeting was co-facilitated by Picture the Homeless and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative.
“And what does it mean to be homeless in New York City? It means that you are forced to carry out life-sustaining activities, such as sleeping, or using the toilet, in public spaces. Simple acts like drinking beer in public is criminalized, and becomes a topic of "Selective Enforcement" These are acts that persons who are not homeless do with impunity. In winding down, please come-share my usual day with me. I usually start my commercial day just after the noon hour. The mid-town work force at lunch provides numerous containers. From 3pm to 5pm, these containers MUST be redeemed, to be directly followed by tracking the after work crowd between Grand-Central, Port Authority, and Penn Station. After a short break it's monitoring the New York City Nite- Life! Being homeless, I have to hold onto these containers all night, until the next morning, praying that the supermarket will redeem them for me. It must be considered that all the time that I am doing this intense manual labor I am vulnerable to illegal police conduct and trying to get a few hours sleep, in my cardboard box in front of Grand Central Station. The worse case scenario is when I am unjustly victimized by over-zealous police, who arbitrarily ticket or arrest me., confiscate my belongings, and my workload. Illegally fingerprint me; and put me through the status quo's so called criminal justice system. As a result of this; I am excluded from Public Housing, gainful employment, and disenfranchised from the voting rolls. This, I submit, is the plight of a 66 year old Afro-American, who has subconsciously been at odds with this unjust ' racist system, that has oppressed me from before I was even born.” —Jean Rice, Picture the Homeless
“Restaurant workers have to live in expensive and crowded apartments, often living with 10 to 15 people in one apartment. Landlords do not fix apartments because they belong to immigrants. These apartments have destroyed ceilings, no heat, old refrigerators and stoves, and dirty hallways. These apartments are full of rats and cockroaches. More than 90% of all restaurant workers do not have health insurance, so we commonly have to live with hepatitis, high cholesterol, diabetes, bad nutrition, lack of medicines, bad sight, back pain, and arthritis. In our workplaces, we suffered sever cuts, burns, and infections from using toxic chemicals. Practically, our mortality rate is less than fifty years of age. Our strength is left at work, where we have to work 60-70-80 hours, and if we are sick we cannot be absent. Otherwise, we are fired. So we have to work sick. As restaurant workers we do not get pay the minimum wage. Owners pay us $2, 3, or 4 dollars per hour, while the state minimum wage is six dollars. In some places we do not get paid anything, and we have to survive only with tips. Even if restaurant workers get paid the minimum wage, it is still a misery.” —Rafael Duran, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York
“In the U.S., this is not just an immigrant problem. It is especially shameful to native-born citizens that in their country of opportunity, they must work in similar horrible conditions. Many people in the Lower East Side and Harlem cannot even find a job, while their neighbors are being overworked to the point of serious injury. ... A main reason this super-exploitation exists is the U.S. law, employer sanctions, that is actually a modern-day slave law. Employer Sanctions has created a growing underground economy of undocumented workers with no right to make a living. It gives unconditional power to the employer to exploit undocumented workers, and at the same time manipulate documented workers into competing with undocumented for worsening unsafe conditions or face unemployment. My friend and fellow member of NMASS, Henryk, a U.S. citizen, was injured on the job. He needed testimonies from his co-workers to get Workers' Compensation. But his undocumented co-worker depended on their boss to eventually get his papers, so he refused to testify. Henryk was unable to fight for any means of survival because his co-worker was considered a criminal by working here, and therefore felt he could not take the risk to fight for better conditions with his co-workers. Repealing this law would eliminate this underclass of workers and eliminate the employer's preference for hiring undocumented workers. It would encourage undocumented workers to come out from hiding in an unregulated, underground society. It would allow undocumented and documented workers to organize together to enforce the labor law, improving working and living conditions for us all.” —Arek Tomaszewski, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops
“Poverty for me is not knowing how I am going to pay to heat my house this winter. Poverty for me is walking from my home in downtown Brooklyn to 116th Street in East Harlem - a minimum of three hours - to save $4 on transportation costs. Poverty for me means having to endure a diet based on cost rather than maximum nutrition and health - opting for a 99-cent McDonald's hamburger over a fresh salad. Living on packaged, canned foods, rather than fresh foods, because it's cheaper. I was on public assistance for a little more than a year, but I opted out of the system by choice. .. [Y]ou are directed towards low-paying temporary jobs... you are discouraged from taking part in [education]. The policy of "work first" discourages any other real job search or educational opportunities. ... I refused to be a part of a system that would not allow me to dream. What we're seeing in this country is an increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Resources once devoted for supports for poor people are now being devoted to fight wars abroad leaving poor people to fend for themselves. This is the real security risk that will only get worse over time. Poor people become increasingly isolated and do not participate politically, and the mechanisms for making decisions in a democratic society begin to break down. Those of us isolated within our society cannot win this fight alone. The UN needs to continue to put pressure on the United States for its lack of compassion externally and internally.” —Keith Gamble, Community Voices Heard
“Being a Hispanic, single mother of one on welfare, getting $109 dollars in cash assistance every two weeks, $274 dollars in Food Stamps once a month, struggling with discrimination, lack of resources for me to continue my education. In comparison to other countries, this may not sound so bad. However, living in New York City where everything is more expensive from soap to clothing to transportation, it all adds up and it's not enough to live and rise to the next level of socio-economic status. Personally, having to day-by-day creatively figure out what am I going to cook because there is a lack of food, to thinking about what I should do when my child is growing so quickly, but yet cannot afford to buy him a pair of sneakers . . All this trickles down to the family suffering - my child suffers with every day struggles of trying to fit in wearing the right clothes, being socially accepted, but mom cannot provide. Therefore, causing feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. As a woman, the issues of poverty are even more overwhelming. Being responsible for a household by yourself without resources presents more challenges. For example, a man with my same skills would be more likely to get a job and would then get paid more. I imagine if society would have an androgynistic respect, then, as a woman I would not have to worry whether or not I will receive opportunities because of my sex.” —Sindy Rivera, Community Voices Heard