Fitch the Homeless is a Terrible Idea
If you haven’t heard, some people are suggesting that in response to the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch explaining that he won’t make clothes for uncool people (aka fat women) we should start giving A&F clothes to the homeless. No really. People are really suggesting that.
Um
“Hey, A&F look at who is wearing your clothes now! Homeless people! Aka the worst of the worst! Aka the non-coolest people ever! Got you now!”
1. Homeless people ARE PEOPLE and should be treated LIKE PEOPLE not props.
2. YOU ARE STILL GIVING MONEY TO THE COMPANY. Yeah, like maybe indirectly indirectly if you are buying your clothes from Goodwill or donating things you already have. But how about we just stop supporting this fucked up company all together.
3. Just read this tweet, people. Just read it.
Okay, I can forgive one white dude for thinking this is a good idea (I GUESS) but SO MANY social justice advocates keep reposting the idea like it’s some genius form of social protest. IT’S NOT. It’s exploiting and dehumanizing and HOW EVEN ONE PERSON READ THIS AND THINK “yeah, that’s a swell idea” IS BEYOND ME.
“A Tupelo [MS] woman hired earlier this month by a KFC was fired Monday after the franchise owner discovered she’s homeless. Eunice Jasica has been staying at the Salvation Army lodge since early December after losing her job, her car and her home. The nonprofit organization requires its residents to seek employment daily and, upon finding it, to pay for lodging and start saving for a place of their own. Jasica said she had been job hunting for months and was relieved to find work on March 11 at the KFC on North Gloster Street. A document signed by that location’s general manager on March 12 confirms Jasica had been hired to perform “prep work” and would receive a paycheck every two weeks. But when Jasica reported for duty Monday, franchise owner Chesley Ruff withdrew the job offer upon learning she lived at the Salvation Army. “He told me to come back when I had an address and transportation,” Jasica recalled. “But how am I supposed to get all that without a job?” Ruff signed a letter the same day stating he couldn’t employ her “due to concerns of lack of residence and transportation” and that she could reapply when her circumstances change. On Thursday, though, Ruff said he’d only used the homeless excuse to protect Jasica from the real reason he declined her services: She has no prior food-prep experience and seemed too elderly to lift the 40-pound boxes involved in kitchen work. Jasica is 59 years old and had worked 27 years as a bus driver and also did security for Bloomingdale’s. She attends classes at Itawamba Community College when she’s not job hunting.”
—Emily Le Coz, “Woman Fired For Being Homeless,” clarionledger.com 3/21/13
“There aren’t many things that surprise me when it comes to queer youth homelessness, but sometimes even I am left furious and perplexed. Late yesterday Ann Coulter tweeted “last Thursday was national coming out day. This Monday is national disown your son day.” No doubt about it, Ann Coulter is an extremist and I don’t normally take her seriously. That said, when we live in a country where 40% of homeless youth are LGBTQ identified I have a difficult time reading a quote like this and simply dismissing it as the rant of a right-wing nutjob. . . . Even though I know that Ann Coulter is a bully, I can't help but wonder how she could sleep last night after posting that tweet when thousands of youth don’t have the luxury of a safe and warm bed to call their own. ”
—Ann Coulter attacks homeless queer youth posted by Sassafras Lowrey, editor of Kicked Out, an anthology of homeless queer youth’s own stories.
Transsexual and transgender women denied access to shelters as temperatures drop in Montréal
ASTT(e)Q urges Québec shelters to change discriminatory practices
25 January, 2013 - As temperatures drop to extreme lows, transsexual and transgender women in Montréal continue to be turned away from many homeless women’s shelters. Over the past week of bitter cold, ASTT(e)Q, a local trans health project of CACTUS Montréal, has witnessed several of our members be denied shelter on the grounds of being trans. While such refusals are frequently justified by administrative regulations, members of ASTT(e)Q believe that these exclusive practices are rooted in discriminatory attitudes towards trans people.
A majority of women’s shelters throughout Québec require trans people to have undergone sex reassignment surgery, and/or to have changed their legal sex. “Such requirements are unattainable for most homeless trans people, due to prohibitive costs, and extensive administrative requirements,” says Mirha-Soleil Ross, staff of ASTT(e)Q. “Trans women are left with no alternatives, as men’s shelters are clearly not an option. With no place to turn, homeless trans women find themselves on the streets, which in -30 below temperatures is nothing short of deadly.”
“Just this week, a trans woman who had her surgery months ago was refused access to a woman’s shelter because she didn’t have an ‘F’ on her identity documents! While we believe trans people should have access to shelter and housing regardless of surgical status, this is a clear case of discrimination disguised as administrative regulations,” continues Ross.
“We are currently seeing many important legal and social advances for trans people, including in neighbouring Ontario where one can change their legal sex regardless of surgical status,” says Nora Butler Burke, coordinator of ASTT(e)Q. “In Québec, trans people have been relentlessly educating intervention workers and calling for shelters to address the exclusion of homeless trans people for decades. Yet shelters continue to refuse trans people based on the outdated policies of the Québec Department of Civil Status.”
In the context of life threatening temperatures, ASTT(e)Q urges all shelters to immediately remove barriers to admission for trans people based on the legal documentation in their possession and/or their surgical status. More broadly, we advocate for access to shelters, as well as other gender specific services, to be available according to one’s social identity rather than according to their legal or surgical status. We encourage organizations across Québec to work in collaboration with trans community groups to ensure that trans people are no longer denied access.
About ASTT(e)Q (Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec)
ASTT(e)Q aims to promote the health and well-being of trans people through peer support and advocacy, education and outreach, and community empowerment and mobilization. We understand the health of trans people and our communities to be interrelated to economic and social inequalities, which have resulted in trans people experiencing disproportionate rates of poverty, un(der)employment, precarious housing, criminalization and violence. We believe in the right to self-determine our gender identity and gender expression free from coercion, violence and discrimination. We advocate for access to health care that will meet the many needs of our diverse communities, while working collectively to build supportive, healthy and resilient communities.
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For interviews: Nora Butler Burke at 514-347-9462
Email: nora@astteq.org
For terms, definitions and additional information about trans people: www.santetranshealth.org
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ASTT(e)Q : Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transsexuel(le)s du Québec
7.8% of NYC Housing Units Are Vacant While Homelessness Rises To Record Levels
gothamist.comAs the Dow Jones reached a record high today, we also learned that 50,000 people slept in New York City’s homeless shelters every night in January. According to a report from Coalition for the Homeless, the number of children sleeping in homeless shelters has increased by 22%, to 21,034, in just one year. “More children and adults are homeless now in New York City than at any time since the Great Depression,” the report states.
Children currently make up the majority of homeless New Yorkers, accounting for over 21,000 of the population who sleep in shelters. That is twice more than single adults who are homeless and sleep in shelters.
Another 5,000 New Yorkers are homeless but do not regularly sleep in shelters.
Meanwhile NYC has over 3,371,062 housing units. 261,278, or 7.8%, of those units were vacant according to the 2010 census (page 30).
Keep in mind that NYC is the richest city in the Western World and second richest city in the world, behind Tokyo. With a large percentage of vacant housing units, homelessness can be literally eliminated with plenty of homes to spare.
But try telling that to Mayor Bloomberg, the 13th richest person on the planet and 10th richest in America, and owner of 11 homes. Recently the Bloomberg administration has been criticized for denying homeless families continuous shelter when the temperature drops below zero. In response to the criticism, he claimed that “Nobody’s sleeping on the streets” in NYC.
This is no surprise coming from a Mayor who banned food donations to the homeless, prohibited the red cross from setting up shelters for the 40,000 who were displaced by Hurricane Sandy and required the homeless to prove they have no where else to go before being allowed into a shelter.
Fortunately, a judge overturned the last policy saying it was enacted illegally but Bloomberg is not going down without a fight. In January, an appeals court heard the matter and will decided whether or not to overturn the judges decision.
New York City has seen a 73 percent increase in the number of homeless families during Bloomberg’s administration.
