my name is Ọnṣé.

i'm a musician, an actress, a journalist, a novelist, a lingerie model, and an organizer.

i have been in the DHS shelter system for six months.

i have been physically assaulted, sexually harassed, and verbally abused on a daily basis.

i have written open letters, called for protests, created petitions, given testimony in front of the city council, initiated city-level investigations into corrupt shelters, and constantly advocated for HOUSING FIRST policy change.

my case is a point-by-point example of why the NYC-DHS shelter system is broken beyond repair.

this is my organization, The Ìrètí Initiative.

it's small, but we are already creating a mighty impact.

i've created a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe so that my social justice organization, The Ìrètí Initiative, can provide resources, legal aid, E-sims, nourishing food, personal hygiene, care kits, a mutual aid-focused summer block party, and so that we can comprehensively meet the needs of the women being held in the DHS shelter system.

i have been documenting NYC-DHS shelter abuse since 2021 as press outside of men's hotel shelters. my ability to help was always limited from the outside.

i entered the shelter system with a private intention to document as much as i could, conduct interviews with women who have been in the shelter for much longer (8 years is the longest amount of time i have documented a woman being trapped in the shelter system, with some struggling with DHS since the '90s), and utilize my documentation to create radical change.

i need community's financial support to continue this work and to provide urgently needed resources for the hundreds of women i have built community with. 

the size of my NYC-Sheltered Tenants' Union is growing daily as women and femmes, nonbinary and transmasc people in the shelter system are FED UP with the constant abuse and human rights violations.

with the help of over 50 women across 6 of the most notorious shelters in NYC, we have created a comprehensive list of URGENT DEMANDS.

the FIRST of which is our declaration of NO MORE "MAN ON" !

male NYC-DHS shelter staff are required by DHS policy to announce themselves by saying "Man on the floor." not only do they almost never actually announce themselves, if they do say it they simply shout "MAN ON!" no one is enforcing DHS' stated policies, so staff either completely disregards DHS policy or makes policy up as they go.

numerous women have reported to me harrowing testimonies of sexual assault, constant sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination, and narrowly escaping SEX TRAFFICKING.

 

THIS MUST END.

 

we DEMAND that male DHS workers work under femme-supervision or be transferred to men's shelters!

 

we DEMAND that all DHS workers receive bi-annual sexual harassment training as a condition of employment .

 

we DEMAND accountability for sexual abuse in women's shelters through the creation of a safe reporting mechanism to prevent retaliation for speaking out.

 

thank you for reading and signing my petition. please also visit my new GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for my organization, The Ìrètí Initiative.

NYC pays this single landlord over $3 MILLION DOLLARS in yearly rent to operate the single jail for women that is my current shelter. this corrupt shelter landlord owns multiple shelters in NYC and lobbies prominent NYC politicians using the millions he makes off the shelters in which these abuses are happening.

in order to successfully fight back against these hyper-funded literal plantation owners, i need to have some sort of funding, too.

i have tried everything: filing complaints, writing letters, sending emails, making phone calls, even organizing public protests.

the only language the governmental agency that is the NYC Department of Homeless Services understands is money.

The Ìrètí Initiative needs financial backing from my community if we are going to get DHS and all the nonprofits who operate their corrupt shelters to finally hear us and to finally take us seriously.

 

NO ONE should have to wait more than one week for a housing voucher. 

 

the sexual abuse i have documented within the DHS shelter system is why.

 

use the hashtag #NoMoreManOn.

 

thank you for reading.