contact: Tej Nagaraja, Communications Director, Picture the Homeless
cellphone: (646) 752-6451
email: tej@picturethehomeless.org
web: http://picturethehomeless.org

Homeless New Yorkers And Community Allies Rally
At City Hall And Council Meeting, Call For Urgent
Advance Of Popular Housing Bill

Push for Majority-Sponsored Intro 48, Law to Count NYC Vacant Properties

New York, NY—On the morning of September 29, homeless and formerly-homeless members of the NYC-wide community organization Picture the Homeless, and allies from a variety of community organizations from around the city, held a press conference and rally at City Hall to push for City bill Intro 48.  Intro 48 on the Council website: http://tinyurl.com/48vacant.  Intro 48—introduced on February 11, and already sponsored by 27 Council Members (a majority)—would empower the City to conduct and publicize an annual census of vacant properties across the five boroughs. Picture the Homeless's "Housing Not Warehousing" campaign sees identifying all warehoused (vacant) buildings and lots as a huge step towards the possibility of creating housing with some of these properties for the lowest-income New Yorkers. This follows from PTH's 2006 research collaboration with the Manhattan Borough President's Office, and the resulting report published in 2007.

In addition to PTH members, speakers at the press conference included Marc Greenberg, executive director of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, and Peter Marcuse, Professor of Urban Planning at Columbia University.  The organizations rallying in attendance included several members of the Right to the City alliance (like PTH) including Community Voices Heard, FIERCE, and FUREE.  Also mentioned in the "shout-outs" of attendees were individuals from the Union Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary.  After the press conference, PTH members marched to the meeting of Council Members happening around the corner on Chambers Street, lining the building with their blue caps and signs supporting Intro 48.  Homeless activists handed informational flyers and chatted with each Council Member who entered the meeting, both those among the 27 co-sponsors and those who have not yet signed on.  Several PTH members were eventually admitted into the Council Members' meeting.

To bring New Yorkers’ attention to the issue, Picture the Homeless launched an online "crowdsourced" (participatory) mapping project of NYC vacant properties on August 24, using dynamic Ushahidi software: http://vacantnyc.crowdmap.com. "Vacant NYC" already contains 364 unique reports of vacant buildings and lots throughout the five boroughs.  PTH’s research derives not only from direct reports from New Yorkers, but also from information available from City agencies. In response to a Freedom of Information request, PTH received a spreadsheet listing 1,889 city-owned vacant lots administered by the Division of Real Estate Services at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). Similarly, the Department of Buildings issued PTH a spreadsheet listing more than 1,400 addresses of residential buildings with a current vacate order. PTH is conducting follow-up research to verify the status of these addresses. Picture the Homeless asserts that the implementation of Intro 48 would be of very low cost and very great benefit to the city.  Cost analysis of Intro 48: http://www.picturethehomeless.org/blog/2010July27cost.

PTH member William Burnett: “It's clear that City agencies already hold a great deal of relevant information -- that both highlights the need for Intro 48 and that will facilitate a low-cost and productive implementation of it.”

PTH member Marcus Moore: “In these tough times, when fewer and fewer people can afford New York City rents, our communities need Intro 48 passed. With the majority of Council Members already aboard, now is the time to have a due hearing and see this legislation through.”