CONNECTING VACANT PROPERTY AND HOMELESSNESS

Anthony Williams: The Martin Luther King Day of Action was some squatters occupying abandoned property. They were going to take over this building, and dedicate it to Martin Luther King. And so, we’re outside. They’re inside. It was a whole organized thing with the Lower East Side, and D.A.N. [Direct Action Network], and a few other folks.

They had it all chained up and everything to hold it down. Me and Lewis were outside, Picture the Homeless. I’m standing outside, and he starts bringing the media to me, and I talked about the significance of abandoned property and about homelessness, and how we need housing.

Andres Perez: When I was young, we really didn’t understand about abandoned buildings. I didn’t understand the reasons why a building would sit there dilapidated like that or sit there boarded up for a period of years, with no one living in there.

When in the meantime, where I’m growing up, there’s a whole bunch of us living in a two-bedroom apartment, all cluttered up, and that’s how most families were living there in the neighborhood. There were not enough apartments for people to have at that time. But I didn’t know so much about it until I became a part of Picture the Homeless, and that’s when I started to learn more what it’s about.