Anthony Wann Williams, writer and longtime advocate for Baltimore’s unhoused, dies

Dan Belson, Baltimore Sun
·3 min read

Anthony Wann Williams, a dedicated advocate for people experiencing homelessness in Baltimore and beyond, died May 8, 2023, in Baltimore. He was 59.

Mr. Williams, who grew up in the foster system and later on the streets of Baltimore, spent his life as a fierce advocate for the rights of the poor and unhoused, founding and leading several organizations championing causes related to homelessness.

Born in East Baltimore, Mr. Williams did not get to know his biological parents. He said he was considered a “problem child” and became accustomed to repeatedly sharing his struggles with abuse and addiction to psychiatrists and social workers.

A writer, photographer and poet, he documented his early life on the streets and in the abandoned buildings of Baltimore and ultimately memorialized that experience in a play, “The King of Howard Street,” based on the intimate portraits he wrote of the people with whom he once lived. Mr. Williams documented his journey of survival in composition notebooks, highlighting the tight bonds and collective struggles of the homeless communities in which he lived.

“He wanted to understand the systems that shaped him because he wanted to hold them accountable to do better,” said Lynn Lewis, a longtime associate who documented Mr. Williams’ life in an oral history project.

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Mr. Williams moved on to other cities, and while at the Bellevue Men’s Shelter in New York, he met Lewis Haggins Jr. Connecting over shared frustrations about the shelter’s policies and costs, as well as the frequently anti-homeless sentiment of the tough-on-crime administration of then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the two co-founded Picture the Homeless in 1999. The group aims to amplify the voices and stories of unhoused people into mainstream media and policy discussions through collective organizing and sharing the full stories of people experiencing homelessness.

In Baltimore, Mr. Williams regularly fought to include those who had the lived experience of homelessness in the decision-making processes that affected unhoused people. He was co-chair of the city’s Lived Experience Advisory Committee, as well as The Journey Home, Baltimore’s U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Continuum of Care program. In 2012, he helped co-found Housing Our Neighbors, a collective of people experiencing homelessness and their allies and advocates.

His life’s work focused on identifying the barriers people experiencing homelessness faced and how solutions could be implemented, while ensuring the conversation was led by those affected.

“He really stood out in a room full of bureaucrats,” said his wife, Jennifer Williams, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The couple had known each other from afar for years but met in New York while she was working for a job-training nonprofit. They ultimately married in Lancaster in 2008.

Often dressed in casual clothes, Mr. Williams was someone whom many would recognize while walking down the street, his wife said. When the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services hired a team of high-level consultants, he was a “consultant to the consultants,” an affirmation of the advocacy he brought, she said.

Mr. Williams continued to advocate for Baltimore’s unhoused amid the coronavirus pandemic, criticizing the homeless services’ office, which he felt was not able to develop a comprehensive plan to use American Rescue Plan Act funds to move away from its system of congregate living facilities.

At home, Mr. Williams collected records. He liked Fela Kuti, Jimi Hendrix, The Supremes, other Motown artists and “that whole era,” his wife said, estimating she had about 300 of his records at home, and hundreds more in Baltimore.

Mr. Williams was survived by his wife. He was honored at an Aug. 22 celebration of life at St. Vincent de Paul in Baltimore.