From the NY Times:Here’s a sign the recession is not over: New York City this year may discontinue its program of buying scarves, backpacks, even watches, for the homeless at Christmas.
Watches? For the homeless?
“It does strike me as surprising, if not shocking,’’ said Mary Brosnahan, the executive director for the Coalition for the Homeless, who had not heard of the program. “I have a waiting room of people every morning in desperate need of help, and I’ve been at the coalition for 20 years and never heard anyone say they needed a watch.”
The gift program has been around since 2002 when the city decided that providing small, personal items to a needy population would be a nice, useful gesture. Over the years, purchasing orders (one pictured below) show that the city has spent about $25,000 buying more than 6,500 watches and thousands of dollars more buying scarves and other gifts for single men and women in the shelter system. Officials say they try to keep the cost below $10 a person.
6 comments:
THOMPSON IS MACHINE POLITICS. IT WILL ALL BE THE SAME, JUST SHUFFLE THE PEOPLE AROUND. I AM VOTING FOR THE CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE: Stephen Christopher. A SMALL CHANCE TO WIN BUT I WILL LEAVE THE VOTING BOOTH KNOWING I DID NOT VOTE FOR THE SAME PROBLEMS IN A DIFFERENT SUIT.
Arent watches basically obsolete these days. If you wear a watch it is without a doubt for superficial reasons. Back on topic, most of those gift watches get traded for crack/dope anyway.
I wear a watch and presumably the idea behind the watch is to help people get to their job appointments.
Nothing like whipping out a cell phone to check the time in the middle of a job interview.
Sorry, just because it occurs during Bloomdays doesn't mean it's a horrible idea. People who lead unstructured lives often don't have any idea of time and watches help tremendously.
The posters here are rather painfully oblivious to the realities of life for the less well-off.
And as far as city expenditures go, it's a hell of a lot more useful than another tax break for JPM.
If they lead unstructured lives then they can survive without the watch.
Sarah, a vote for anyone besides Thompson is a vote for Bloomberg and we need to get this Billionaire emperor out of office before he drains our last ounce of blood. Really smarten up.
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