"Homelessness is against the law in this city." - Woman with Furs
Homelessness NYC Statistics
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Between 1990-1993, there were between 18,000-24,000 homeless in shelters in New York City each night
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Between 2014-2016, there were between 57,000-64,000 homeless in shelters in New York City each night.
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Single homeless people have much higher rates of mental illness and addiction disorders than homeless families or single people with homes.
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African-American and Latina/o citizens in New York are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Right now 58% of the homeless population are African-American and 31% are Latina/o.
Homelessness in Marisol
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Rivera noted before the world premiere of Marisol that homelessness comprised the “political essence of this play.”
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In Act One, he articulates homelessness as either the source or a symptom of the prevailing sickness described by June (21).
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The play was a way to fight back against violence against the homeless and the legitimization of that violence by the culture, society, and local government of New York City.
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Rivera makes the invisible visible throughout Marisol from the material to the metaphysical and homelessness is no different.
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“He calls on the audience to witness the presence of homelessness… he insists on the recognition of belonging in larger urban and human community” - Rossini
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“Audiences are presented with scenes they should recognize and then made to see them again - from the perspective of the homeless” - Westgate
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Reaganomics:
The Political and Economic Causes of Homelessness in the 1980s
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According to conservative and Republican ideology, urban homelessness was not a structural problem, but an individual pathology.
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As Mayor of New York City in the 1980s, Ed Koch supported and helped pass anti-loitering laws that allowed the New York Police Department to remove homeless from public space, rendering the Woman with Furs declaration about homelessness being illegal in NYC true.
