
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 6, 1990                   TAG: 9007060251
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ACTIVIST MITCH SNYDER DEAD

Homeless advocate Mitch Snyder, who brought himself to the edge of death in many fasts to promote his cause, was found hanged Thursday at a homeless shelter.

Police issued a statement calling the death "an apparent suicide by hanging." Spokesman Reginald Smith said a note containing "suicidal references" was found near Snyder's body.

Police sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suicide note indicated Snyder was despondent over problems in his personal life. "It was a domestic situation, something to do with his girlfriend," one source said.

Snyder, 46, was one of the nation's best-known advocates for the homeless. A television movie dramatized his 1984 hunger strike for federal funds to house the homeless.

David Hayden, founder of the Justice House in Roanoke and a friend and fellow homeless activist, said, "Obviously there are no words in the English language to describe the deep-felt hurt I felt when I heard the news. This is a tragedy. I loved him very very much.

"We were co-workers for the struggle for justice in this country and perhaps two of its more disruptive figures," Hayden said. They shared a 48-day hunger strike in 1988 and often worked together in the fight against homelessness.

Snyder, who had beaten the federal government in numerous confrontations over the years, lost a battle with the city government on June 26 when a city law guaranteeing overnight shelter to everyone was scaled back because of budget pressures.

"I think that's what did it, I really do," said Bill Draughn, a shelter resident. "It was a slap in his face."

Snyder's abrasive manner and extreme tactics - including frequent dramatic hunger strikes and a sleepout on grates outside the Capitol - won him allies ranging from politicians to Hollywood stars.

Snyder, who grew up in New York City, married and had two sons, working as a washing machine salesman, vacuum cleaner salesman and job counselor before walking out on his family in 1969.

He wound up in federal prison on an auto-theft charge and later joined an anti-war group in New York. He moved to Washington in 1973, where he found that "homelessness became the domestic counterpart to what was happening in Southeast Asia."

by CNB