Artist(s): Ali Rufrano-Ruffner, neighbors at Center for H.O.P.E, Francisville residents
Location: Outside of the Now Demolished CVS, Francisville, Philadelphia, PA
The bus & train stops near my apartment have nowhere for people to sit or rest. People drag old furniture that is discarded just to find places to rest, until cops violently sweep the area and throw everything away. People sleep on cardboard, discarded furniture, and out on the street, until cops violently sweep the area and throw everything away. The cycle repeats over & over again. People sleep out on the sidewalk because three homeless shelters within a block and a daily hotel exist that can’t even house everyone. I built these benches- for CVS where people sit & sleep, and for outside my apartment where people sit & sleep.
After I built the benches, my downstairs neighbor called the police on me and my unhoused neighbors - just for sitting outside on a public sidewalk on the benches. He would yell at people all day, yell at me, and made it so intolerable to live. You truly have to be the biggest piece of shxt to call the cops on people for sitting on their own sidewalk. He would actually come out in the middle of the night and drag it across the street so people couldn’t use. He did it so aggressively that he broke one of them. The police told us that if anyone even sat on the benches when they drove around that they would “be arrested”. My neighbors have told me time and time again how disturbing this one neighbor treats them & how they are seeing more and more young people come into the neighborhood and act like that. I am so heartbroken and disturbed by this experience and people who have this type of attitude towards development / housing / homelessness. It all keeps me up at night. So many people look at small things and say “oh that won’t solve the issue.” So often these people are the same people that have never made or built anything. They criticize and do nothing. It will change things though. It provides people with comfort however brief. It will give people some sense of well-being or love or support or care. Keep building. Keep making everything all the time - keep making stuff when people call the cops on you, when they tell you it doesn’t matter or it won’t fix stuff or that it doesn’t matter because it does.