Essay from America: The constituents bypassed on campaign trail

Whoever becomes 45th president of the United Stateswill be expected to deliver a unifying speech, saying that they will work for all Americans, both those who voted for them and those who voted against.

But what of those who can’t vote?

On a street off Park Avenue, Manhattan, one of the swishest addresses in New York city, two men are settling down for the night under cardboard and blankets, their roof the timber walkway laid over scaffolding on the face of an office block under refurbishment.

It’s after midnight and temperatures are falling fast. It will get down to two degrees later, and they pull hats down tight over their ears and turn their jacket collars up.

New York’s homeless problem is very visible. Every night in bus shelters, doorways, church steps, subways, and under the canopies of designer stores, others are doing the same.

Some of them are clearly high, their possessions strewn around them as they sit trance-like in open areas. Others tuck themselves up so neatly, they are hard to see. One young man sleeps with a sizeable black dog beside him, a cardboard notice bearing the message #petlivesmatter, explaining that he can’t go into a shelter because he would have to surrender his faithful companion.

These are the constituents the election campaign bypassed.

Back on the street off Park Avenue, Anthony and John apologise that they haven’t seen too much of the campaign coverage but say it doesn’t matter any way because they can’t vote.

John, most recently homeless for the past six months, last voted when he was 19, which was 26 years ago.

“It was for a mayoral election, I think. I haven’t ever voted for a president. I haven’t always been homeless but I have a prison record so that counts me out.”

Anthony, in his early 20s, who has been homeless for a year, isn’t sure he would vote even if he could.

“From what I’ve seen it’s just one candidate putting down the other, just arguing and name-calling. I don’t think either one is better than the other.

“But I can’t vote because I can’t register because I need ID with a home address on it and I don’t have a home.”

The sad thing about their comments is that they’re both wrong, as Jacqui Simone, policy analyst for the Coalition for the Homeless explains.

“In 1984, we won a lawsuit that established the right of homeless people to register to vote in New York whether or not they sleep in a shelter or on the street,” she says. “We’ve been working ever since to get that message across.”

In fact, New York has one of the more flexible voter registration arrangements. A mailing address is required, plus a habitual residence address, but the mailing address can be that of a charity such as the coalition and the habitual residence can be a street corner or park.

“People can also vote in any district even if they’re registered in some other place previously. And they do not need photo ID. A signature is all that’s required.”

New York is also more liberal than many states on offender voting rights. John technically can vote too, once his parole period is up, although, for a repeat offender, exclusion periods may overlap with voter registration deadlines, making it practically impossible.

“It’s difficult with street homeless to explain to them how they can vote but we have been doing outreach,” Jacqui says. “Most homeless in New York are in shelters so it’s a little easier to get them engaged. Unfortunately we don’t know how many homeless people vote so it’s hard to assess how we’re doing, but probably there are thousands and thousands of potential votes not being cast.”

Across the country, it is estimated that almost 6m prisoners and former felons are excluded from voting, either because of strict state rules or the practicalities involved.

Ironically, Anthony and John are bedding down across the road from a shelter but neither want to go there.

“You have to register as a client with them and there are rules and regulations. I broke some so I can’t go back,” says John. “And you can only stay there a certain number of days and then they move you out to Ward’s Island, which is basically prison. It’s where all the crazy people go.”

The mention of Ward’s Island — a 500-acre stretch of land in the East River between Harlem and the Bronx used for a variety of state facilities including homeless shelters — makes Anthony shudder.

“I prefer to take my chances on the street,” he says. Last winter was hard, he admits. “It was very cold, but you get extra blankets, you lay down, you say a prayer and you get through it.”

Some 60,000 people, including 24,000 children, are in homeless shelters in New York and an unknown number, which the coalition says runs to thousands more, are on the street — the highest numbers for many years.

Homelessness didn’t make it on to the election agendas, but that’s no surprise to Jacqui Simone.

“Extreme poverty and homelessness tend not to be a talking point at federal level,” she says.

“There have been some low income policies discussed but they would not necessarily reach our clients because they’re often on no income.”

Anthony and John are plotting their way out of homelessness. Both started working in construction last week and want to pool their resources and get a cheap one-bed apartment somewhere like Washington Heights, the tower block neighbourhood at the very north of Manhattan.

“Landlords want background checks and credit checks so it can be hard to get a place,” says John.

Both presidential candidates can call New York their home. Trump was born in Queens and lives mostly in Trump Tower, two avenues over and 24 blocks up from John and Anthony, while Clinton was senator for New York state and has her main home in Westchester county, just outside the city boundaries.

“I don’t think either care too much about New York,” John says. “Maybe Trump a little more because he has property around Manhattan. But so long as we don’t turn up in his doorway, he’s probably not going to care much.”