Our Model in Practice
Founded in 1999, Picture the Homeless (PTH) is a grassroots organization led by homeless people. PTH members have ever since been organizing for social change including an increase in affordable housing, ending police brutality against homeless people and exposing abuses found within the shelter-industrial complex. PTH also challenges the images, stigma, and media (mis)representations of the homeless and works to put forward an alternative vision of community.
PTH is currently operating a housing campaign that aims to reduce and prevent homelessness by addressing the severe shortage of affordable housing in New York City. PTH's goal is to transform the city's vacant spaces through a range of organizing tactics -- including direct action occupation, renovations, public education and participatory research.
To increase the effectiveness of their housing campaign, PTH partnered with Common Law to support their members focused on foreclosure prevention and the right to access shelter services. Common Law offers weekly legal clinics that either focus on assisting PTH members to navigate through foreclosure settlement negotiations or directly supporting fair hearings for those who were found ineligible for shelter or whose right to shelter was discontinued.
VAMOS Unidos - Vendedoras Ambulantes Movilizando y Organizando en Solidaridad (Street Vendors Mobilizing and Organizing in Solidarity) is a community-based social justice organization founded by low-income Latina/o immigrant street vendors. VAMOS Unidos organizes its members for economic and racial justice, immigrant rights and police accountability.
The number of vending permits available in New York City is capped at 3,100, an amount that has been unchanged since 1979 even though there are over 20,000 vendors in New York City. Because vending permits are so difficult to obtain, VAMOS Unidos members are forced to vend without a permit and are frequently arrested, harassed by police, and receive violations of up to $3,000 – a crippling amount for members who earn, on average, $50 per day.