FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                   

Saturday, July 10, 2021

CONTACT

For general inquiries: Sara Newman, 646-907-9052, info@uwsopenhearts.org

Shams DaBaron: info@thedavidprize.org

Advocates Stage “Homeless Rights March” on Gracie Mansion, Charge Mayor de Blasio with Reckless Endangerment of Homeless New Yorkers

Civic and Community Leaders Join with Homeless New Yorkers to Declare Homeless Rights Are Civil Rights, Demand a Halt to Transfers to Unsafe Congregate Shelters, an End to Street Sweeps, and Immediate Implementation of Intro 146  

NEW YORK — Today, a broad coalition of homeless New Yorkers, homeless rights advocacy groups, and community leaders rallied and marched to Gracie Mansion to declare that homeless rights are civil rights and protest the Mayor’s escalating attacks on homeless New Yorkers. Advocates “served” the Mayor with papers charging reckless endangerment of homeless New Yorkers for moving them to sleep up to 20 in a room as the Delta variant surges and vaccination rates in New York’s shelter system stand at just 14%. 

The action was led by Shams DaBaron aka “Da Homeless Hero,” a former resident of the Lucerne Hotel who has been named a finalist for the David Prize for his advocacy, as part of “Homeless Rights Month” in New York City. 

Speakers at the rally including DA nominee Alvin Bragg, City Council nominees Kristin Richardson Jordan and Crystal Hudson, Maya Wiley, and BLM of Greater New York founder Hawk Newsome emphasized that homelessness is a racial justice issue. The vast majority of individuals in the New York City shelter system (90%, according to Coalition for the Homeless) are Black and brown, and Mayor de Blasio is putting their lives at risk by insisting on dangerous transfers to congregate shelters and stepping up NYPD-backed street sweeps to remove unsheltered people and their belongings from wealthy neighborhoods. Despite low vaccination rates among homeless New Yorkers and the rise of the Delta variant, which is more infectious and has nearly doubled in recent weeks, the Mayor and the Department of Homeless Services are moving homeless New Yorkers out of hotels, where they were moved as a safety precaution during the COVID pandemic, and plan to complete move-outs by the end of July. Following a lawsuit from Legal Aid for violating the rights of disabled individuals, the city recently paused transfers, but has already emptied 23 of 60 hotels, and plans to resume.

Following the rally, the group of around 150 protestors marched to Gracie Mansion, where Hawk Newsome, Shams DaBaron, Maria Walles of Picture the Homeless, and Althea Matthews of VOCAL-NY read “charges” against the mayor for reckless endangerment of homeless New Yorkers amid the pandemic, before handing over a “warrant” to his staff.

Advocates are calling on the mayor to cancel the transfers and instead use the recently passed Intro 146, which would increase CityFHEPS rental assistance vouchers to fair market rent, to provide access to permanent housing for those in hotels.

“You cannot say that Black Lives Matter and then send homeless New Yorkers to congregate death traps,” said Shams DaBaron, aka “Da Homeless Hero,” former Lucerne resident and homeless rights activist. “This is systemic, institutional, and structural racism.”

“We’re sick and tired of being sick and tired,” said Maria Walles, formerly homeless advocate with Picture the Homeless. “We need shelters to hotels and hotels to apartments.”

“When we talk about a pandemic, we are not just talking about COVID. We are talking about a pandemic of cowardice,” said former mayoral candidate Maya Wiley. “Right now in this city, we are sitting on top of the resources to end homelessness. We have the money: we just need the courage.”

“Homelessness is a racial justice issue. Homelessness is a criminal justice issue. Homelessness is a human rights issue,” said Democratic nominee for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “We need permanent housing--housing is a human right!”

“I’m tired of marching,” said Hawk Newsome of BLM Greater NY. “How many times have we been outside this Mayor’s house? Why are people sleeping in the streets when you’ve got all this space in these buildings?”

"It's beyond time for our city leadership to step up and fight for the tens of thousands of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, especially in the wake of a pandemic that seriously endangered the lives of those in our shelter system,” said Democratic nominee for City Council District 35 Crystal Hudson. “That means fighting to ensure homeless New Yorkers have access to safe and secure shelter right now, creating a real pathway to long-term, permanent affordable housing, and building housing that is truly accessible to and prioritizes people experiencing homelessness, on the brink of eviction, or who are otherwise housing insecure. We have failed to address these issues time and again, and we must now act with courage and conviction to recognize the rights, dignity, and humanity of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness." 

"Abolition is not an absence but a presence as Angela Davis said. Every person deserves a home,” said Democratic nominee for City Council District 9 Kristin Richardson Jordan.

“The actions of our current administration to deny the most basic of rights to our New Yorkers is incredibly disheartening, yet I am not surprised,” said Shanequa Charles, Executive Director of Miss Abbie’s Kids and criminal justice advocate. “De Blasio needs to SIGN Intro 146 to restore dignity to our unhoused population and stop running two separate cities where the rich can survive and the poor are thrown away like trash."

Additional organizations participating in today’s march included VOCAL-NY, Arc of Justice, Neighbors Together, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, SURJ-NY, Picture the Homeless, Human.NYC, UWS Open Hearts, Housing Works, Open NY for All, Midtown South Community Council, the NYS Council of Churches, the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, and the Greater Harlem Coalition.

Background

Today’s action comes after 25 homeless New Yorkers locked themselves in at the Four Points in Midtown last week, deeming transfers unsafe. Yesterday, the Legal Aid Society secured a temporary halt to the transfers on the basis of the city’s failure to provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities.

In response to Mayor de Blasio’s unprecedented assault on homeless rights, homeless New Yorkers, led by directly impacted advocates Shams DaBaron and Maria Walles, have declared July “Homeless Rights Month” in NYC with a broad coalition of supporting organizations. The group is demanding Mayor de Blasio pause the transfers to congregate shelters, stop street sweeps of unsheltered New Yorkers, and implement Intro 146 on an emergency basis to get more people housed.

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