N.J. City Uproots Homeless Activists

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - City authorities on Thursday dislodged protesters and cleared a makeshift encampment set up by advocates for the homeless in advance of the Republican National Convention.

A work crew aided by police, fire and health officials dismantled plywood and tarpaulin structures that were erected on a vacant lot by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

A 60-foot-long, four-foot high sign painted on white sheets read: "Billions for the war, still nothing for the poor."

Jersey City lies across the Hudson River from New York, where GOP delegates will gather this summer to nominate President Bush for a second term.

Police spokesman Sgt. Edgar Martinez said the property owner had signed a trespassing complaint. He also said the site posed a health and fire hazard. A local judge turned down the protesters' request for a restraining order.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14496-2004Jun4.html

I am still too wet behind the ears to start a post, but this nonsense went down a few blocks from apartment and I've been fuming over it! So thank you NewYawker99 for bringing this to light for anyone who may not know. Here is an article written by a friend of mine on what went down. He works for the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, the group responsible for the erection of this camp. I'm going to post the article in full since there is no copyright on it, and I don't think it is posted elsewhere on the internet.


Police Storm Bushville in Jersey City
by Andy Harris & Matt Wasserman / KWRU


In the 1930s, as America sank into the Great Depression, shantytowns called "Hoovervilles" sprung up all across the country. Their name a nod to President Herbert Hoover, they were built by the newly unemployed and homeless on the edges of cities. Now, as President Bush presides over the first administration since Hoover's to lose jobs, a new generation of impoverished individuals is adopting the symbol of the shantytown to draw attention to the problem of poverty.

On Tuesday evening, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU), part of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, erected "Bushville" in a weed-infested, abandoned lot in Jersey City. Two ramshackle tents, one medical and one a dormitory, and a kitchen shack stand across from a Dunkin' Donuts. A banner saying "Billions for the war, still nothing for the poor" lies on the ground, toppled by a gust of wind. Nearly 15 people, a hodgepodge of homeless women, their children, and activists, alternately lounge on the dormitory mattresses and struggle to keep the tents up in the wind. According to participants and organizers, the city will remain for "as long as it takes."

Early Wednesday morning, after buying food for the day, several of the protesters left the nearby Pathmark grocery store to find three of their cars towed by order of the Jersey City Police Department, as NYPD officers observed from the Dunkin' Donuts across the street. They had their cars back by the middle of the day, after revealing inaccuracies in police reporting of the incident. The Jersey City police had harassed the protesters earlier in the day for parking their cars on the Bushville lot. The police also threatened to turn the children on the scene over to Child Services.

One of the mothers so threatened was Yesenia Cruz, who has been involved with the campaign since being denied Section 8 housing aid and becoming homeless. Two of her three children played behind her in the dormitory tent. "It's been hard for us, and are always asking how long till we go home. We were stable, and now it's all up in the air," Cruz says of her family's homelessness.

Cruz has spent the past two years finding creative ways to get housing, sometimes staying with KWRU activists and sometimes sending her children to relatives' houses. She says that education has been a struggle for her children because the family moves around, and sometimes she isn't able to get them to school.

Like the other protesters at Bushville, Cruz thinks that poverty issues are issues of human rights. "Everybody has a right to housing, medicine, and education."

KWRU has been organizing in Philadelphia to raise awareness of poverty issues and help the poor since 1995. Their past actions include marches, tent cities, and free food distribution. In Philadelphia, they organized a "Ridgeville" and a "Clintonville" and several of KWRU's tent city projects have also led to takeovers of abandoned buildings to house residents. During the 2000 Republican National Convention, "Bushville" was a center of activism.

KWRU activist Rocco Rosanio says the tent city helps people find temporary housing and is an effective way to raise awareness of poverty. Rosanio stresses the importance of making the issue visible. "This is an issue of people turning away more than of not seeing it. If people realized, they'd want to take steps in their own lives." Cruz adds, "Just because people can't see us doesn't mean we're not here."

The inhabitants of "Bushville" plan to stay on through the Republican National Convention, for which they are planning a Poor People's March starting at the UN. However, they are unsure whether they can continue to organize from their current site. Explains Rosanio, "Tent cities are very unstable in terms of law enforcement. They'll do anything to get us away."