“It could happen in the middle of the night,” Feliz Guzman, 39, an organizer with Vocal NY, told protesters.
”You find out you are being moved and you do not know where you are going to go. So in the middle of all your issues you are having and trying to preserve your humanity, you end up being told that you are not welcome there anymore.”
Programs in big cities are adapting, too. For example, VOCAL-NY, a statewide grassroots organization that helps low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, runs a syringe services program out of Brooklyn. When the pandemic struck New York City, the organization started providing people with personal protective equipment and hand sanitizer.
Following weeks of demonstrations calling for a reduction in NYPD spending — part of a national reckoning over police brutality — VOCAL-NY learned it lost out on $2.25 million the Council had previously allocated to help the group buy a permanent headquarters in Brooklyn.
Poltico: Following budget fight, Johnson cuts funds for advocacy organization Read More »
