To raise funds and voice, NY Muslim adopts lifestyle of the homeless
Amid hot summer days of August in New York City, one man set aside the comfort of his metropolis lifestyle for a greater, less popular cause. Yusuf Ramelize lives in an apartment in the borough of Queens, but for one week his new residence was the street floor by Manhattan’s Grand Central Station. Homeless and humble, for the third year in a row Yusuf put himself in the forefront to bring attention to those less fortunate in the glamorous city of New York.
Imagine a week without Internet or your mobile phone. No emails, Facebook, or text messaging.
Ramelize adds, “I don’t have any money. I don’t change clothes; this is it for the week. And I’m sleeping on the streets.” He did bath either for the entire week, which he says is one of the biggest physical challenges of the experience.
For the first night, New York City was hit with a heavy thunderstorm this May, and Ramelize like thousands of other homeless individuals and families here experienced it without shelter.
“It’s really lonely at night. It’s lonely and its cold. It rained last night. It was a pretty intense experience,” Ramelize says with a look of exhaustion.
After his first night on the sidewalk in New York City, Ramelize woke up with a backache he says he never felt before.
Though there are many shelters for the homeless in New York, Ramelize complains that conditions there are worse than living on the streets.
“They are very dangerous and filthy.” Violence and rape are other complaints.
According to the Coalition for the Homeless, over 40,000 people will experience homelessness as the existing figure touches 100,000 mark. The figure has doubled in the past decade. Ramelize points out, “Our perception of homeless people may be inaccurate. It is not just panhandlers that live without a home.”
He thinks the face of homelessness has dramatically changed. “Chances are, you’re coming to work on a bus or train, and there’s probably a homeless person in that train or sitting next to you on the bus.” Unemployment and those living below the poverty line have been on a steady rise in the US, forcing more people onto the streets.
This year, Ramelize went homeless during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, fasting from food and drink from sunup to sundown making his homeless journey that much more excruciating. He broke his fast at a local mosque for food as he didn’t have money to purchase meals.
Ramadan is a month of reflection and giving Zaka’at (or alms) to those in need. Raising awareness about the most unfortunate in society is one way Ramelize is giving back spiritually.
Besides fasting and sacrificing his shelter, Ramelize was a homeless without shoes or socks just like hundred others who cannot afford a pair. Ramelize says he now values each step he takes. “Each step I don’t take it for granted.”
For one day out of his homeless week, Ramelize ’s friend LensayAbadula is joining him in the campaign. She wants the “opportunity to help better understand what I have and not take it for granted.”
Towards the tail of Ramelize ’s homelessness week, the weather took a vicious turn and Hurricane Irine came crashing on the northeastern region. Tens of thousands of homes were left without electricity; flooding destroyed towns, and hundreds of has to be evacuate from their homes.
Though NYC authorities ordered all homeless to move into shelters during the storm, many fear returning to them after having previous horrifying experiences. For Ramelize , returning to his apartment was the only sensible thing to do, but it would make it apparent that despite his courageous efforts, he is still not homeless and won’t experience it in its entirety.
Ramelize knew that his efforts of going homeless were only a token of reality. He knew that though a week of being homeless might be difficult, but it only gets harder after that.
He knows that living a week without Internet, mobile phones, shoes, money, and shelter is much easier than living months or years that way. Every year Ramelize goes homeless in an attempt to make his experience a little more challenging. This year he came without shoes. He takes a year to think about raising the bar for the next time he goes homeless.
Each year, Ramelize attempts to raise $5,000 towards an organization that supports homeless people in New York. This year, he donated the raised funds to CAMBA. Over the last two years, Ramelize could not achieve his fund raising targets. In 2009, Ramelize collected just over $3,600 for the Coalition for the Homeless, while 2010 brought just over $4,600 to the kitty of the Food Bank for NYC.
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