Pushing Back on “Things Will Never Change”

Nikita Price (December 2, 2017)

We’ve always been a small group of folks who finally got it, like, “If we don't say something or do something, that shit's going to continue.” And we'd have to go back to our environments and see people that were suffering, and that had resigned to, “Well my fate is whatever my fate’s going to be.”

Whereas the folks at Picture the Homeless said, “My fate is going to be whatever the fuck I want it to be and so, I'm going to do whatever I have to do, to make that. And if I have to step out of my comfort zone, and let it be known and tell you that, then I'm going to do that.”

So, I always liked the fact that Picture the Homeless always pushed back. This is the reality of the bullshit that you're trying to jam down people's throats. And I think during that time we didn't have a big voice, but we were consistent, and we were not going to back down. That's when I realized that we had a lot of power. Picture the Homeless had power, if we stayed consistent.

Kazembe Balagun (June 4, 2019)

PTH's ability to win at the vacancy count also opened up the space for people to talk about community land trusts because then people werelike,“Youknowwhat?There'salotoflandinNewYorkCity.” And I'm assuming that people thought that that was a bullshit struggle.

Nikita Price (December 2, 2017)

Because, it's one thing to say, “Okay, you know we're getting fucked, we’re getting fucked…” But to come up with, you know, what's the next step? We know what the problem is, so what do you do? How do you fix it?

And I think that was when we would then introduce the issue of all this abandoned property, and that's when we're also doing our abandoned building count, you know. The City does own some of this property and there are this many people in the fucking shelter, and on the street.

Sue Lob (October 22, 2019)

I think Picture the Homeless has been extraordinary in giving voice to and the whole idea of “picture the homeless”, having homeless people be visible as full people and not just be referred to as “homeless”. Picture the Homeless changed that in New York and continues to do that and there’s no substitute for that, I think.

Arvernetta Henry (September 28, 2017)

When this particular party said that there was no vacant property. And they said, “There isn't any vacant property available for the homeless population. That's why you have to be in the shelter system.” Well, she was talking to the wrong group of members!

I never thought I would be sleeping out in the rain, on the ground, on an air mattress, camping out… Because this person owned this building and it had been vacant for many, many, many years in a popular district. And we called the media, we called other organizations that supported us, and I said, “I wanted to do something new.”

And this was something exciting and new to me. I said, “I always liked camping!” But this was different. This was at night in the city streets! I had so much fun. And people came and asked us why we were doing this.