Rosewater (organization)

Rosewater, sometimes spelled RoseWater, was a homeless advocacy organization founded in Cleveland, Ohio in the late nineties by Clark David Campbell. Its mission was to "liberate" abandoned buildings for use by the homeless.

In December 1999, Campbell, joined by vegetarian activist group "Food Not Bombs," led a well-publicized protest on public square against then Mayor Michael R. White's "sweeping the streets" policy. [http://www.clevescene.com/2001-02-01/news/curry-duty/]

Mayor Michael White had instituted a policy in accordance with other mayors at the time, most notably Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0413249] , to "sweep the streets" of the homeless during the holiday shopping season. This was done in an effort to reduce their visibility, in order to improve city's public image, and promote economic development.

As part of this policy, homeless people were asked to remove themselves to city shelters at night, and to cease from sleeping openly in public. This resulted in several arrests of homeless who refused shelter at the city facilities. This brought the city into conflict with the American Civil Liberties Union, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E0D71339F936A15751C1A96F958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fA%2fAmerican%20Civil%20Liberties%20Union] which brought a series of lawsuits against the city to prevent further arrests. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AK&s_site=ohio&p_multi=AK&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB6D572ED324A14&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_dateD&s_trackval=GooglePM] [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AK&s_site=ohio&p_multi=AK&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB6D8A035D88C2B&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=108p_sort=ymd_date:D&s_trakval=googlePM]

On December 22, 1999, "Food not Bombs" and Rosewater's Campbell erected a tent city in public protest of the mayor's policies. This culminated a citywide campaign to roll back the mayor's policy. Later that night police stormed the square and arrested all present. [http://www.workers.org/ww/2000/cleve0113.php]

The public exposure brought about by the arrests, resulted in the cessation of the policy. [http://www.clevescene.com/2000-01-06/news/street-fighting-men/full]