Poor Org the Poor Collective-Lessons from NUH
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Poor Organizing the Poor Collective for Political Independence is an project of the University of the Poor (www.universityofthepoor.org) with the purpose of uniting leaders across our class and struggle to learn from the NUH's important lesson or organizing and building political power as well as from current struggles and organizing to end poverty. We work to build collectivity and a collective analysis and organizing model to unite our class and build political power to address and end the structures the create poverty and homelessness.
Below is the story of the NUH, on which we build.
The National Union of the Homeless (NUH) originally formed in the late 1980s and early 1990s in response to shifting economic conditions resulting in mass homelessness of families and former workers across our country. The formation of the shelter system that is an central part of the nonprofit industrial complex today formed at this time as well. From the shelters, encampments, and abandoned buildings folks came together to fight, speak out and organize against the very conditions that have made them homeless.
In June 2019 organizers from across the country gathered in Washington DC at the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival’s Moral Congress. At this gathering we voted to form the Committee to Reestablish the NUH.
Today the revitalized NUH has established multiple locals throughout 11 states, we held our first Officer’s Trainer School Fall 2019 and we continue to grow throughout the country as we uphold the slogans, legacy and practices of the original NUH; such as “You Only Get What You Are Organized To Take!, Homeless Not Helpless!, and Housing Now Not death On The Streets!
The NUH then and now is made up of members currently and formally experiencing homelessness as well as organizers understanding this is a fight for the survival of all the poor and dispossessed in our nation. The power the NUH is proof that we can speak for ourselves, think for ourselves, and organize together to lead not just ourselves but the nation in changing the very system that continues to create homelessness every day in this country.
Below is the story of the NUH, on which we build.
The National Union of the Homeless (NUH) originally formed in the late 1980s and early 1990s in response to shifting economic conditions resulting in mass homelessness of families and former workers across our country. The formation of the shelter system that is an central part of the nonprofit industrial complex today formed at this time as well. From the shelters, encampments, and abandoned buildings folks came together to fight, speak out and organize against the very conditions that have made them homeless.
In June 2019 organizers from across the country gathered in Washington DC at the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival’s Moral Congress. At this gathering we voted to form the Committee to Reestablish the NUH.
Today the revitalized NUH has established multiple locals throughout 11 states, we held our first Officer’s Trainer School Fall 2019 and we continue to grow throughout the country as we uphold the slogans, legacy and practices of the original NUH; such as “You Only Get What You Are Organized To Take!, Homeless Not Helpless!, and Housing Now Not death On The Streets!
The NUH then and now is made up of members currently and formally experiencing homelessness as well as organizers understanding this is a fight for the survival of all the poor and dispossessed in our nation. The power the NUH is proof that we can speak for ourselves, think for ourselves, and organize together to lead not just ourselves but the nation in changing the very system that continues to create homelessness every day in this country.
Organizer
Kristin Colangelo
Organizer
Collingswood, NJ