Was Homeless Hero Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax Your Neighbor?

Neil Donovan is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Neil is the Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.

Much has been reported on the tragic death of Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, a New Yorker who stopped to help a woman being attacked and was murdered as a result. He lay unattended for more than an hour, with people walking past, before emergency workers arrived. Tale-Yax was a homeless immigrant, descriptions that seem less relevant than his heroism. But, the question "who was he?" is relevant. He symbolized people often criticized, ostracized and marginalized, who are often forgotten or passed over. However, we now draw upon the title of hero and Good Samaritan swiftly, with no dissonance or conflict, concerning our treatment of him, prior to his heroic act.

The Story of the Good Samaritan was told in response to a question posed to Jesus, "Who is our neighbor?" Samaritans were considered by many, in their time, an under-class in conflict with the Jews. The story describes a Jew attacked and left for dead. A priest and Levite passed him by, while a Samaritan stopped and helped him out. The question then asked by Jesus was "Which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?"

As New Yorkers and the National Coalition for the Homeless welcome Commissioner Seth Diamond to the Department of Homeless Services, it is both important and timely to draw from this horrific experience and ask the Commissioner, "Was Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax your neighbor?" Tale-Yax lay in the street not due to the callous response of a few New Yorkers. He lay there because homeless people lying on the streets of New York is not shocking or disturbing or unexpected.

The Commissioner chose to bring a stick — "consequences" — to his first press conference when he should have brought a carrot. He chose to apply the lessons learned from reforming welfare, rather than considering the welfare of those he's charged with serving.

The Commissioner must make it his job to prioritize the health and wellbeing of all our un-housed neighbors: housing the elderly, children, chronic, mentally ill, sick and dying, and veterans can be achieved by ending the homelessness of all those residing in New York and throughout America.

Perhaps Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax's greatest legacy will come in the form of change. Change to the way New Yorkers perceive a homeless person lying on the street or change to the way we define our neighbors.

Photo credit: moriza