Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2012)
3 street roots June 22, 2012 First Homeless Bill of Rights sets example for other states BY JASON MCLURE A report in April from the White House’s Interagency Council on Homelessness noted hode Island’s governor is expected to a “proliferation of local measures to sign into law the first “Homeless Bill criminalize ‘acts of living’” such as sitting, of Rights” in the United States as standing or asking for money in public early as next week, formally banning places. discrimination against homeless people and “You’re just looked down on because affirming their equal access to jobs, housing you’re carrying your life on your back,” said and services. John Joyce of The legislation, Providence, who was which won final homeless for three Supporters say it was approval by the state years and now is Senate on necessary doe to widespread co-director of the Wednesday, bucks a Rhode Island discrim ination. national trend among Homeless Advocacy municipalities toward Project. outlawing behaviors Portland has a associated with homelessness such as camping ban in place, and enforces a eating, sleeping and panhandling in public sidewalk management ordinance in place spaces. that prohibits people from sitting or lying on Among other steps, the Rhode Island law portions of downtown sidewalks. would guarantee homeless people the right Frank Nolan, 53, of Providence became to use public sidewalks, parks and homeless last year when a ruptured appendix left him with $30,000 in hospital transportation as well as public buildings, like anyone else “without discrimination on bills and he did not have medical insurance. the basis of his or her housing status.” Nolan said he used the addresses of It guarantees a “reasonable expectation of friends on job applications because he knew privacy” with respect to personal belongings he would not be hired if his address was a similar to that of people who have homes. homeless shelter. While other laws already guarantee many He said he was stunned when a bus driver of the rights specified in this legislation, failed to stop for him and three other supporters say it was necessary due to homeless men waiting near a shelter. “He widespread discrimination. pulled up and looked at us and he knew we “I think we’ve set the bar high in the U.S. were homeless,” said Nolan. He just waved for homeless people, and I’m very proud of and he drove off.” In Philadelphia, an ordinance took effect that,” said Senator John Tassoni, a sponsor on June 1 banning charities from feeding of the bill. homeless people in public places such as Roughly 643,000 people are homeless on any given night in the United States, experts parks. In St. Louis, Missouri, police evicted say. homeless people from a site leased for them “It’s important as a standalone piece of by a local minister after the city cleared out legislation but also as it’s juxtaposed with other communities that are in the process of three homeless encampments along the Mississippi River. criminalizing homelessness,” said Neil Last year, San Francisco began enforcing Donovan, executive director of the National a ban on sitting and lying on sidewalks Coalition for the Homeless. “This just affirms the rights and existence between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., with violators facing tickets of up to $500. But San Jose of the unhoused in America.” recently said it would order police to stop Cities including Philadelphia, San throwing away the personal possessions of Francisco and St. Louis recently passed homeless people seized during sweeps of ordinances targeting the homeless or have homeless camps, amid criticism from stepped up enforcement of existing homeless advocates. regulations. “This affirms the rights and existence of www. street-papers. org/Reuters the unhoused in America.” CHOMSKY, from page 1 attention and sympathetic concern for their own priorities, and efforts to integrate these into a broader movement of mutual support. Like the kinds of efforts you mention. S TR E E T N E W S S E R V IC E R S.K.: Speaking of broader movements, in some of your past talks you have been critical of the overly narrow focus of social justice organizing. I would imagine the Boston area alone has dozens of little social justice organizations. It could be, for example, housing justice initiatives, promoting solidarity with people in Latin America, countering the influence of the military in public schools, or any number of issues. But how effective can they be on their own? Should they be forming alliances with more broadly based social change movements like OWS? N.C.: I don’t recall being critical of the narrow focus in itself. It is often well justified. But the atomization that is so prevalent in the society as a whole is harmful to individual movements, which could benefit greatly from participation in a common enterprise with many complementary facets. That is why for many years — many decades in fact — there have been efforts to create broader regional or even national and international coalitions. It hasn’t been easy, but it is clearly desirable. There’s a good reason, for example, why unions are called “internationals,” even though the term is much more of an aspiration than a functioning reality, as it should be, for the benefit of all. S.K.: Last month you went to Harvard to address a gathering of Boston-area OWS activists. Don’t you find it odd that the 99 percent movement gathered at the university of the 1 percent? N.C.: In most countries meetings can be held at union halls — like when I talked in London a few months ago. Not here. The main functioning institutions are churches and universities, so meetings are commonly held there. I agree with you that there could have been a better venue. I suppose there were reasons for selecting that one. S.K.: In the 1980s, Harvard was seen as a sort of scholarly refuge by Indonesian and Guatemalan generals. More recently, Georgetown gave a faculty position - Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership - to former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, despite his horrendous human rights record. What do universities stand to gain or lose from such alliances? N.C.: It was a refuge, as you say, and that gave an opportunity to activists. I was involved in both the Indonesian and Guatemalan cases (Lumintang, Gramajo). Harvard was keeping it secret, but I learned about it from activists in Indonesia and Guatemala, and groups here were able to organize very effective protests that drove Lumintang out of the country (one of my favorite ever Boston Globe headlines was “Indonesian general flees Boston”) and properly shamed Harvard. Alan Nairn, a wonderful person with a flair for the dramatic, waited for the Harvard commencement, and when Gramajo came up for his diploma, raced down the aisle in front of the TV cameras and handed him a subpoena - the State Department quickly got him out of the country. I was part of the Uribe protest too, but that time the protest didn’t prevent the appointment, though it had its effects. The U.S. supported all of these gangsters, handsomely. So not surprising that Harvard joins in to reward them in its own way. S.K.: Lawrence Woods, a political scientist, conducted a survey a few years ago to see how often your writings are cited in undergraduate International Relations textbooks. From 1992 to 1999 only 8 percent of the texts contained citations of your work (and that’s including one extended footnote). A follow-up study looking at texts published between 2001 and 2004 didn’t turn up a single citation. How does this square with your reputation as the “most-cited living author”? N.C.: I’m amazed there it was even 8 percent. And I suspect if you checked, you’d find it was mostly condemnations. What else would you expect? How often do you think H ow ard Zinn, o r o th e r c ritic s o f U.S. foreign policy, are mentioned? Sometimes, it’s truly scandalous. Gabriel Kolko’s pioneering work on the early Cold War is almost never cited in scholarly journals, though plenty of scholars crib from his insights. The “reputation” is based on some survey of social science literature put out by the MIT PR office. Maybe accurate, maybe not, but not of the slightest significance. www.street-papers.org/ Spare Change News, Boston, Mass. W ife Only a few days left to join the Street Roots Summer Rally! Help take p s into summer by supporting Street Roots. Go to our website, find a team you like, and donate Your efforts will go to support grassroots media, economic development through the vendor program and the Rose City Resource guide. Be a team sport and help Street Roots today. Go to rally.streetroots.org. and join the fun opportunities fo r people experiencing homelessness and
