Listening to Members Experience and Analysis

Floyd Parks (October 25, 2019)

I was right there across the street from Metro-North. That’s where we was living, had that little gathering, in that area right across the street. Somebody was being harassed and talking to Nikita [Price] about this stuff, right? And he came and said, “Anybody need any help, any assistance with anything?” I said, “What can you offer? What you got to offer?” He said, “Talk to us. Help us know what your problem is. Explain your situations. Let us know what’s going on, how can we help you?” That’s how I got into it. I started talking.

He said, “Oh, I like the way you talk. You want to talk?

Then I got speaking in places and learning how to communicate and let people know what’s going on, and how things are out there and what people are really going through. That’s like a good feeling, that you know that there’s somebody that’s there that’s going to listen to you, somebody that’s there that’s going to see the seriousness of what you’re saying, somebody that’s going to be open and going to be considerate of your feelings and your thoughts and put everything in perspective, you know?

Tyletha Samuels (April 19, 2019)

It was bad. It was horrible. It was so many different things. To have to sit with your child for so many hours to have to go to a shelter, late at night… And then the medical part of it, you know? Okay, I understand. When you go into a place, you want your children to be safe and not bring in germs and stuff.

But the way they told me how they used to do it, like if I’m dirty or I’m diseased, or something like that. The way the system was, they felt like they dehumanized you. But the families and the people that I did talk to did talk to me. They did say, “Well look, this is worth it. We’re glad to hear that there’s somebody out there who cares… Somebody out there that wants to do something.”

Being Accountable to Members

Ryan Hickey (May 22, 2019)

The members are leading the work and in the press and speaking for themselves and there’s no other organization in the city that does that really. Membership in a lot of groups are often used to serve an end. But I never felt like our membership was being used, because our membership was, first of all—really strong. And if we did something stupid, people like GKM would be like, “What the fuck is your problem?” It’s like, “You work for me.”

We were accountable to them, and they were accountable to us. It was like this shared accountability that I think was healthy! A lot of the times there were unhealthy moments for sure, but that is how it should be. You should be directly accountable to membership and if you’re member led, which we were.

Ryan Hickey (May 22, 2019)

One of the speakers was talking about housing and how we need supportive housing, and I remember Scott, or somebody was just booing and hissing. It’s not a great look to be with coalition members and booing at our own rally. But that’s coming from a real place. And I remember Jaron was like, “Dude don’t do that. Tell your members not to do that.” I’m like, “Listen to where that’s coming from. Ask yourself why they were booing and hissing rather than saying ‘Don’t boo and hiss.’”

Supporting the Development of Collective Analysis and Systemic Solutions

Floyd Parks (October 25, 2019)

Sitting back and looking at what’s going on and discussing, seeing what needs to change, talking and relating to the whole perspective of what we’re trying to accomplish, where everybody comes to some kind of agreement, and we try to go out from there. I guess they saw the seriousness of the topic, the seriousness of what they’re going to bring forth. What they were saying, they believed it. Everybody felt this was the right thing to do. That’s why everybody came together and got it done. *

Willie Baptist (November 19, 2018)

I remember a meeting. I went there and didn’t know what to expect. I seen homeless folks trying to figure out what to do, planning about particular police brutality issues, all the different issues. I was very impressed with the fact that you had homeless folks, men, and women, who are there planning their next action based on, I think at that time it was dealing with police injustices that that they were trying to deal with at that stage. And you know, there was no doubt who was the leadership of that process.

Nikita Price (December 2, 2017)

It didn't take us long to realize, “What the fuck! I'm not going to be able to pay this rent after five years, even with a job.” That's when the reality came that the majority of the folks that were in the shelter that were members of ours, did not make a living wage then. And with this step down, each year you would have to pay that much more, that much more, that much more, that much more... And we were looking at people's salaries and we were looking at the rents that were being asked, and it's like, “No, this is bullshit!”

That's when we start engaging the city. Like, “This is not going to work!” I remember us speaking with then folks at HRA and DHS, and saying, “This shit is not going to work! People are going to be right back in the shelter.” And they would not listen to us.

And I remember us ruffling a lot of feathers at DHS—Maryanne Schretzman, Susan Nayowith, and a few other people. Whenever they would see us coming they're like, “Here come these motherfucker's again.” You know, “What do you want? We gave you a voucher!” Well, the voucher is not going to work.

Ryan Hickey (May 22, 2019)

We realized that we couldn’t leave it up to the “experts” to solve the problems because if they could, or if they would, or if they wanted to things would’ve been solved. I think this is part of Picture the Homeless’ mission where homeless people know the problems, therefore they know the solutions and I guess the challenge is the organizing work between identifying the problem and identifying the solution and how to get there. Representing

Sam J Miller (November 30, 2017)

I remember there was a call that came in—like we were doing press calls, and somebody was like, “Oh sure, we'll do an interview. Who's there?” Right? And it being like—I was like, “Okay, let me put Tyletha on.” And not knowing that Picture the Homeless had an organizational value where like members are the ones who speak to the media. And so, you being like, “Ah, no that's not going to be Tyletha, get the person's number and we'll call them. We'll get a member to do the interview and we'll call them back.”

Ryan Hickey (May 22, 2019)

She may not have come to every housing meeting. But when it came time to talk to the press about the failures of LINC or the failures of temporary subsidies, which was a huge thing for the press for a year. New York 1, PIX 11—they were often doing these exposés, these exclusives. When they needed a story about the failures of these problems, if I didn’t do that work with Donna, they wouldn’t have come to us and we would’ve been like, “Sorry we don’t have anybody.” So, even if we didn’t have a targeted campaign about temporary subsidies, that still served the mission and still served the work because Donna was talking.