Homeless people traveled to Brooklyn this morning, to deliver a papier-mache turkey to the Brooklyn City Council Member who is blocking an important housing bill. 

Intro 48, which would empower the city to conduct an annual census of vacant buildings and lots, has been stalled in the City Council’s Housing & Buildings Committee since February. Committee chair Erik Martin Dilan has ignored numerous calls for a hearing for the bill. 

"Erik Dilan has refused to meet with us, and refused to schedule a hearing for Intro 48,” said PTH member Andres Perez, explaining the reasoning behind today’s action. "They’re definitely anxious now. What we did today was a fresh start – a taste of what’s to come." 

Dilan’s staff maintained that he was not in his office at the time of the action, and they refused to take the turkey. 

"Look where he’s got his office," said PTH member Bernard Anderson, pointing out several vacant properties in the immediate area. "His community doesn’t know what’s going on – what he’s doing, and what he’s not doing for them. Today we made the point that he can be touched too, even here." 

“I am a native Brooklynite, born in 1955,” said PTH housing campaign leader Kendall Jackman. “Since the 1960’s I have watched as Brooklyn’s housing stock has slowly deteriorated.  What were once majestic brick apartment buildings, little communities within themselves, are now open, rotting shells or boarded up memories of a different time.  Where other buildings once stood, vermin infested garbage dumps called empty lots fill the landscape.  The houses where some of the best talent in all fields grew up have been transformed into a wasteland because of greed. So Erik Dilan, Councilman from Bushwick, Brooklyn, Chair of the Housing and Buildings committee, why are you disrespecting this fine borough and its people, by not scheduling a hearing for Intro 48, the citywide census count of empty buildings and lots?”

Picture the Homeless promised Dilan’s staff that they’ll be seeing more of us – and our turkey.