From Picture the Homeless [1] (see also: PtH Blog [2]):

Picture the Homeless is requesting that all members and allies call up representatives of the MTA in support of homeless shelter residents.

Homeless men who have been "sentenced" to live in the Ward's Island shelter complex have been targeted by the NYPD and subjected to tickets, arrests, and community service (criminalizing the homeless) for fare evasion on the M35 bus. 850 men live in the largest of several shelters on the island -- but the city only gives 150 metrocards a day!

Our "Homeless Freedom Riders" campaign has been heating up, with civil disobedience actions that have netted us major news coverage (see below for links to articles in The New York Times and City Limits Magazine). HOWEVER, the MTA still refuses to meet with the residents of the Ward's Island shelter, or address their demand that the M35 bus be free for shelter residents.

Please call MTA Press Spokesman, Paul Fleuranges, and tell him to meet with Picture the Homeless. Mr. Fleuranges is quoted extensively in the City Limits article, yet in spite of numerous calls from M35 riders he refuses to meet with them or to facilitate a meeting with anyone at the MTA in a position to make the bus free. Call him - and the following additional MTA execs - to demand that they meet with the Homeless Freedom Riders from Picture the Homeless!

• Paul Fleuranges: 646-252-5873

• Joseph J. Smith, Senior Vice President, Department of Buses: 646-252-5872

• H. Dale Hemmerdinger, MTA Chairman: 212-878-7200

For more information about our Homeless Freedom Riders campaign, contact Turhan White at Picture the Homeless (646-314-6423; turhan@picturethehomeless.org [3]).