“My new life goes to value me my outdated one,” recited Harlemite Helen Taylor in a poem she wrote about transferring on. Right this moment, her return on funding contains performing Shakespeare within the Park, displaying her work at MoMA PS1, and getting acknowledged as “Excellent Neighbor of the Yr” by the Supportive Housing Community of New York final month.
However what began in Harlem stays in Harlem. Taylor left her outdated life on the door when she entered Fortune Society’s transitional housing program for individuals returning house from incarceration. She finally moved into her first residence, a supportive housing unit within the reentry nonprofit’s Fortress Gardens improvement on one hundred and fortieth Avenue.
Taylor excelled beneath the mannequin, which pairs everlasting inexpensive housing with substance use therapy, psychological healthcare, and different providers tackling contributing components to homelessness. She’s now thought to be Fortress Backyard’s “Mama Bear” and recognized for her motto, “love is love.” In any case, she discovered her individuals. When Taylor contracted COVID-19, they picked up her groceries. They have fun her birthdays. And now she’s paying it ahead.
“As soon as I bought my residence, I needed to achieve out and assist those that [are] nonetheless incarcerated,” stated Taylor over the telephone. “In order that after they come out, they might be lucky to get what I bought: supportive housing. So I began advocating.”
Consequently, Taylor turned an unofficial spokesperson for supportive housing, talking at rallies and metropolis council conferences for insurance policies and proposals to broaden the follow throughout the 5 Boroughs, particularly for different formerly-incarcerated people who face a better threat of homelessness. She participates in different felony justice reform actions, together with for closing the Rikers Island jails.
Earlier this 12 months, Taylor campaigned for Int. 1100, a invoice to incorporate time spent in jail, jail, or court-mandated medical detention towards the qualifying threshold for supportive housing, which normally requires a consecutive 12 months of homelessness. Her story performed a big position, and she or he testified how the housing mannequin saved her life to the Metropolis Council. The laws was handed in August.
She additionally bought concerned with Fortune Society’s arts programming — she’s a singer, actor, and poet. In 2023, Taylor took the stage in a high-profile adaptation of “The Tempest” at Central Park’s Delacourte Theater, the place she proudly notes Denzel Washington as soon as starred. The Public Works’ manufacturing acquired a New York Instances’ critics’ decide and featured the likes of Hamilton actress Renée Elise Goldsberry. Taylor says she’s come a good distance from sleeping on park benches to performing Shakespeare within the Park.
“The streets was [sic] my life at one level,” stated Taylor. “And as we speak it’s not. I would like people who find themselves popping out of jail to know that they do have a second likelihood as a result of I’m a dwelling proof, and I by no means thought that I might be the place I’m as we speak.”
