'Everyone deserves a place to sleep at night'

In the beginning, city officials asked these homeless activists if they could avoid calling attention to themselves: no high-visibility signs or big lettering at the front door of the old bank building they had rented. This was back in the day when critics of help for the homeless had a kind of reverse Field of Dreams view of things: If you don't build a refuge, they said, maybe they won't come. If you don't address the problem, in other words, maybe it'll go away. The lettering on the window outside the old Equitable Bank Building at 111 Park Ave. still doesn't demand attention. But the problem didn't go away. Street people had their ways of communicating. They got to know where they could go for help. Nor did Jeff Singer and the handful of men and women who work with him go away. They have shown several generations of... [read full story]