Father and Son Challenge Each Other
To Provide Homes and Heart

by Frederick B. Hudson

A neatly dressed fifteen year-old boy approaches the rostrum of the New York Stock Exchange on November 10, 2002 and rings the bell that signals the thousands of traders that business has begun for the millions of international transactions that move the world's economy.

Who is he? An athlete.? No. A rap star? No. He is a youth who has never had a home to which he could invite his friends to watch television or play video games. He is homeless. But not hopeless.

Herbert Bennett Jr. has risen above a daunting set of life challenges to lead and advise with an aplomb that would merit notice in a man twice his age. And his dad, homeless too, has refused to lie in self-pity and despair, but has used a lifetime of advocacy skills to press for dignity and justice for residents of the earth without a roof to shelter them.

This remarkable father and son team has been featured in articles in major New York City newspapers and a documentary for the Showtime television network about them is presently being filmed. The father is a leader in an organization called Picture the Homeless which takes on all-including the police-- who degrade and punish the homeless for their circumstances. Herbert Jr. has been interviewed by former N.Y. City Mayor David Dinkins and has been a featured guest on National Public Radio. He is president of the youth choir at his church and a member of student government. As a volunteer for the Coalition for the Homeless, he has a schedule of speaking engagements that would tax the mayor.

This dynamic duo's remarkable saga began shortly after 1987 when the elder Herbert's youngest child, Herbert Bennett Jr.,. was born. His mother, Willean, began to develop symptoms of a hereditary disease calls Hick's syndrome which affects the peripheral nervous system. Herbert Sr. had been working for over twenty years with the New York Board of Education as a teacher's assistant, but when his wife became incapacitated he, his wife and four children were soon swallowed up by the bureaucratic regulations which help to create almost 40,000 homeless in New York City alone.

When an individual like Mrs. Bennett qualifies for a home care attendant due to his or her limitations, the system refuses to allow an unsupervised youngster under 16 to remain in the home-the rationale being that the home health attendant could be sued if anything happened to the child even if the child legally was not in the care of the attendant. Faced with this restriction Bennett took a leave of absence from his job to care for the then 2 and 1/2 year old and the family began receiving public assistance while Ms. Bennett's application for Social Security disability was processed.

Although the application for disability was approved after three years, the family ran into housing difficulties when the New York City Housing Authority refused to renew the family's lease for their apartment in 1992 because of Herbert Sr.'s advocacy for correction of an overpayment error.

The family had to enter the shelter system. Although the family was able to live in its own self-contained series of rooms, they were forced to comply with regulations which among other strictures forced them to be in the shelter by a certain time every night and forbid them to have any visitors in their dwelling.

This rootlessness has affected Herbert Junior's close ties since the system moved them around at will from shelter to shelter. He says today of friendship that ".I don't consider myself to have friends-I have associates because to get attached--you might lose them. I might have to move."

Although the family was able to find an apartment owned by a church-sponsored rehabilitation organization in 1995, they were forced to give it up in 1997 when Willean's condition forced her to move to a nursing home. The apartment was designated for the handicapped-when the handicapped member of the household was not there, the bureaucracy took the apartment back.

Thrown back into the shelter system again, the family now consisted only of the two Herberts since the other children were adults and forging lives for themselves in the service and in college. They were constantly shuttled from assessment center to temporary shelters because they had lived at times with relatives and the system feels that if relatives took you in at one time, you are not really homeless.

They finally qualified for "homeless" designation in May 2002 because someone in the system made a mistake and allowed them to stay in a shelter for 30 days-a period of time that by law allowed you to become certified as homeless despite your past living accommodation history.

This wealth of experience has sharpened Herbert's community organization and advocacy skills. A active member of a group called Picture the Homeless, he is fighting for a homeless representative of all policy making bodies that administer programs for those without permanent shelter.

Bennett says "Parents and homeless are easily intimidated because of their lack of knowledge. I tell them you never put your whole faith in anyone person's hands. The shelter is not here to inform you of your rights. I tell them put down the name of every contact. You need a log so you can say "I spoke to someone with the name of ---.' Keep the envelope with the postmark on it. You can show negligence on the agency's part if you got notification of an action of expulsion or hearing late."

He says of his son's accomplishments: "I believe teaching is showing, not telling. My son has been through some rough times but I tried to show him, both paths, only he can choose."

Junior says that he keeps going through his own willpower. I decided that I can't let the system win. My inspiration is my mother. I want to go to college for journalism. I want to become a lawyer. I want to be mayor."

Herbert Jr. already has gathered a few votes already for his campaign. Both he and his father exemplify a statement Will Smith made on a program that showed the process of the making of the movie Ali "life is not about what is around you, but what you decide you want to be."

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