Groups Keep Vow: ‘Empower Homeless’

Steve Riley, 42, cuts a figure reminiscent of radical black activists from the ‘60s in his gray beret, goatee and zippered shirt.

While living in Grand Central Station five years ago, he wrote a 150-page manifesto and founded the United Homeless Organization “to empower the homeless.”

But Riley’s vision has nothing to do with violent revolution. Rather, he wants the homeless to provide their own services, run their own shelters and integrate into mainstream society through job-training programs.

Homeless advocates say Riley’s group is representative of a growing number of homeless people who are setting their own agenda by organizing themselves and shaping activities of existing programs.

The United Homeless Organization provides food, clothing and counseling to its members. Holding paper cups printed with “UHO” and dressed in T-shirts with an official logo, they canvass the subways asking for donations, a portion of which supports the group.

“We’re at the beginning of the homeless empowerment movement,” said Michael Stoops, a field coordinator with the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C.

Kay Nepprath, public policy coordinator at the California Homelessness and Housing Coalition in Sacramento, said her group expanded its board to include the homeless and set up an “empowerment committee” so they can assess their needs.

“The key is setting up and running an organization where homeless and formerly homeless administrators get input from the people that will be served,” said Paul Boden, staff coordinator at the San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness. Boden used to be homeless and noted that “coming from the street is not a badge of morality” or of good management skills.

The National Coalition for the Homeless is helping homeless people throughout the country who are trying to organize themselves, Stoops said. He is currently working with six groups of homeless people from around North Carolina who are joining forces.

“We’re going to do an empowerment conference next year and pull together the United Homeless Organization and others so they can get to know each other,” Stoops said. “Every shelter or service provider should have homeless or formerly homeless people on their board or staff.”

Most homeless groups, like the United Homeless Organization, start “from the cardboard,” Riley said. Once they gather together, the homeless have a voice.

Now, the United Homeless Organization claims 4,000 members and coordinates them from a movable office that uses space as it becomes available. The city’s homeless outreach posts donate desk space, chairs and telephones, as do nonprofit groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Coalition for the Homeless.

Riley plans to expand the group and offer more than food, clothing and a little counseling by taking over city shelters and developing job training programs. “We want to put the pieces together so that the homeless, the government and the business community can come together and get these people off the streets for good,” he said.

The city is looking for sites for new homeless shelters to be completed in two years, and Riley desperately wants to manage one. “Riley has been working with us to have the homeless use city services, especially in areas where there’s difficulty,” said Sharon Myrie, acting co-director of the Mayor’s Office on Homelessness.

Riley first got involved in city government at the start of David N. Dinkins’ term as mayor when Nancy Wackstein, then director of the Mayor’s Office on Homelessness, chose him to sit on an advisory committee concerning single homeless adults.

Now, the United Homeless Organization is applying for nonprofit status with help from the Mayor’s Office on Homelessness. If accredited, it will be eligible to get private foundation grants and federal and state funding. Advocates across the country said Riley’s group is probably the first grass-roots homeless organization to file for nonprofit standing.