Each Ramadan, one American Muslim uses a novel way to draw attention to homelessness plaguing the Big Apple.
It’s the DSL with a killer low aperture lens I notice first. The young, bearded man of Trinidadian background is friendly, casually but elegantly dressed, and carrying a camera that makes me drool. Being an “amateur photographer” (a phrase deservedly lumped in with other social pariah-like states such as “social smoker” or “casual gamer”) I start talking to him. From the way he dresses and from his belongings, I figure that he’s in a creative profession. We’re at New York University, and he’s shooting a student event.
I was right about his field. He’s a graphic designer and photographer, but the camera whose lens made such an impact on me is used for something a lot more noble than impressing other people: it’s part of his arsenal documenting the one week he spends each year away from his comfortable life and rewarding career.
Away from the campus, Yusef Ramelize tells me about the Homeless for One Week program he started three years ago, in a city notorious for its homeless.
“New York is unique – it’s one of the better cities when it comes to emergency shelters, and things like that. But this is one of the most expensive cities to live in, in the United States. Rent goes up every year but people’s minimum wages don’t match it. People’s incomes are not matching up with the cost of living.”
He’s right. Like a scar on an otherwise flawless complexion, homelessness affects prosperous cities. I think of other, booming metropolises I’ve visited. In East Asian powerhouses like South Korea and Japan, its victims are there, hidden in the maze of subway passages on minus 14 degree winter days in Seoul, under the bridges criss-crossing the Han River, or huddling outside tents away from Tokyo’s neon jungles and consumer meccas of Shibuya, Shinjuku and Harajuku.
Ramelize says the true scale of the problem is always concealed, and people’s preconceived notions about homelessness make the task of trying to overcome it even harder. “A lot of people think most homeless people are panhandlers on the street – but that’s not the case,” he says over a coffee at Starbucks.
“The majority of homeless people you don’t see on the street, or it’s hard to recognize them as homeless people. They might have jobs like you and me but can’t afford the cost of living in New York City.”
During his week as a homeless person, he tells me, he leaves behind nearly every creature comfort that non-homeless people take for granted – a roof over your head, a shower, a meal and a decent income. Ramelize’s initiative is fully supported by his bosses.
“I remember the first time I told my director and she looked at me and asked if I was okay, but my employers have been one of my biggest helpers – they don’t take the week out of my annual leave allocation and support the program.”
He sleeps on subways, or in Union Square park near the NYU campus. At first, he acquiesced to his mother’s request and took his mobile. “My mom was like, Yusef, please take your cell phone. But I prepared her, and this year I won’t take the phone.”
He will take a camera, however, to record his experiences during his week of homelessness, and in the lead-up to it when he’s raising money for organizations working with the homeless in New York city. He believes those organizations have noticed a drop in the amount of help they’ve received in previous years. “They’ve been going through rough times because the financial slowdown means corporations aren’t donating as much as they used to. So we need to take responsibility.”