PICTURE THE HOMELESS PUTS THE MAYOR ON TRIAL

(Article published in HWW July-August 2008)

Four years ago Mayor Michael Bloomberg promised New York City he would bring about a huge reduction in the number of the city’s homeless people which then totaled 36,600.

It hasn’t happened as he’d hoped. And members of Picture the Homeless, an energetic advocacy group run by homeless people, are not about to let the Mayor forget it. In June, exactly four years after Bloomberg announced his ambitious goal, members of the group gathered in midtown Manhattan to stage a mock trial of the Mayor. “Witnesses” testified his policies were failing and – to no one’s surprise – the crowd judged the Mayor ”Guilty!”

The total number of homeless is down from five years ago, but not near Bloomberg’s target of a two thirds reduction by the end of his term in 2009.

Nikita Price, Picture the Homeless’ campaign organizer, says the answer is for New Yorkers to speak up and vote.

“In order for all of us, including homeless people, to make a change in the system, we must vote,” urges Price. “If we have a Mayor that after four years of implementing a program to reduce homelessness by two thirds and we find it’s failing, we must vote in someone who can deliver to the neediest of the needy.”

What about the national election coming up in November? Price says, “The national candidates are not addressing the issues of the poor.”

You can guess his solution. “We must speak up and vote.”

For information on registering for the November election, call League of Women Voters at (212) 725-3541.