The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
March 20, 2009

Decrying Homeless Policies, New York Housing Activists Occupy Vacant Building
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------



Here in New York, dozens of people gathered at a vacant building in East
Harlem Thursday to call for more affordable housing and better treatment
of the homeless.

Protester: “We need housing now. I’m homeless. I’m tired of being
homeless, when it’s $1,500 a month for a closet in New York City alone.
In the Bronx they’re charging people $1,500. Section 8 is not there
anymore. These housing programs that they give us are only two years.
What happens after two years? We need to tell the people today that we
are tired of it. And this is what we’re going to do: if there’s a
homeless building, we’re there; if there’s a shelter that they’re not
opening up for the homeless, we’re there. We need to change now.”

The event was organized by Picture the Homeless. The group says New York
has up to 24,000 vacant apartments that could house every homeless
family in the city.



.