School Choice: The Coburn-Gillespie Family

This is the second profile in a series of interviews with parents about the schools they send their children to, by choice or by the randomness of the NYC school system. If you’d like to be profiled, please get in touch.

Family: Christine Gillespie, VP and Associate Publisher of Knopf and Pantheon?(pictured above left) and Melisa Coburn, writer, editor, and blogger, most recently for CafeMom. Together she and Chris write Shiny Brite, a local parenting blog.?Parents of Jasper, age 6, and Magnolia, 4.
Neighborhood: South Slope
Zoned School: P.S. 295, 330 18th St., between 6th and 7th Aves., 718-965-0390. (Insideschools.org review here>>)

BB Kids: So you were in the Center Slope and then you moved to the South Slope?

Melisa: We were zoned for 321 and were in a co-op there, but we bought a house in Park Slope South five years ago.

And at that time your boy Jasper was one?

Melisa: He turned one right around the time we moved into the house, and we hadn’t really checked out the school situation too much, certainly not in any formal way. We just felt like we couldn’t wrap our minds around that then. And also I knew several people who really moved mountains to be in 321 and then, for whatever reason, weren’t happy. So we decided to not make ourselves crazy with it.

Was that a factor in moving? The fact that people weren’t happy with 321?

Chris: We weren’t trying to get away from 321, we just felt like what we heard didn’t tell us that it was such an amazing school that we couldn’t dare leave it.

Melisa: It was more that it was an 800-square-foot apartment, and I know lots of people live in that amount of space and have a kid or even two kids, but it felt too confining for us. The biggest reason that we moved was that we wanted more space. We wanted a house, and we did not want to move to the suburbs.

The fact that you were moving to another part of Park Slope–did you feel confident that it would be a good school? I feel like in Park Slope you have a comfort level in knowing that you are going to be zoned for a good school no matter where you are.

Chris: We propbably did. And we’d been in Park Slope for a long time–we were on the north end of the neighborhood, we were in the center Slope, we were on 9th Street for a while. I don’t think I’m exaggerating, but we really didn’t pay attention to the school situation. We looked in other neighborhoods, we looked as far as Greenpoint, and we didn’t pay as much attention to the schools as we should have, because we certainly know people who moved into districts that were not that desirable.

Melisa: I think it was kind of an afterthought. We were thinking about house and space and what we could afford. And then once we decided on this place, we did say, ‘You know it is Park Slope, and we have been here for a while and we do feel comfortable.’ And we did know we were in District 15 and it’s a big district and there are options. So after we had decided to move here we sort of said, yeah there is a certain comfort level in knowing that it’s familiar Park Slope, it’s District 15, so at least there are options.

So tell me about the school–it seems like a fantastic school.

Melisa: Yes! So when it became time to start thinking about the school situation and what we were going to do, we looked around and saw that 295 was the school we were zoned for. We read a little bit about it, and we went on the tour and we were pretty much the only family there that was zoned for the school. Everybody else was zoned for another school but trying to get into P.S. 295, and we thought, ‘That’s interesting.’

It’s P.S. 295, The Studio School of Arts and Culture, so there’s a focus on the arts in addition to the regular curriculum.

Is this a charter school?

Melisa: It’s not a charter, but it is a magnet school. There’s a real commitment to the arts. Students take dance and movement, drama, art, and music.

From what age?

Melisa: Pre-K. Our younger girl is there in Pre-K, and she has dance and movement today. And currently the school has a partnership with the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, so someone from the conservatory comes to teach music classes to various grades during the week.

And the school has a garden?

Melisa: The school has an edible garden that students and faculty and parent volunteers helped plant. It was funded by a grant from Slow Food NYC and the effort was really spearheaded by the school librarian, Susan Weseen, who is super committed to teaching the kids about green living, about where food comes from and having a connection to food. So this is a new thing, it was planted over the summer, and when the kids came back in the fall, there were all these wonderful fruits and veggies that they were able to harvest and eat.

Have you felt the influence of the school upon their development? Are they more artistic, or doing more creative things at home?

Chris: I would say they already were pretty artistic and creative but definitely I feel like the school has brought that out a little more. And also in terms of their development, the school has been great with our son (because he’s the one who’s been there two years, he’s now in first grade), in looking at his needs exactly and talking with us about what they feel he needs more of in the classroom. I feel like they’ve been very thoughtful about the way he learns and it’s felt very personalized there. And the nice thing about the dance and the drama is that it’s another way to direct their energy and focus in a really positive way outside of the playground. I feel like they really need that, and it helps them learn.

Melisa: It’s a small school, which is another thing that we’ve liked. I think the enrollment is around 400 for grades Pre-K through 5. And I feel that being at home, as the one who does a lot of the dropoffs and pickups, you feel that smallness, because everybody really does know everybody else and I think feels connected and vested in all of the kids succeeding and being happy. I remember going to a performance last year of Jasper’s, and one of the Kindergarten teachers–not his–she was arranging the kids and seemed to know every child’s name, in all three Kindergarten classes. I was really struck by that. It’s not just his teacher who knows him and who’s invested in him, it’s all the teachers across his grade. For being New York City it felt very small town and sweet.

Did you both grow up in cities?

Chris: I grew up all over the place. I moved probably every two years until I was 17, and I went to all different kinds of schools, I went to public, I went to private, single sex, co-ed. I lived in Houston and in Chicago, but not where I was in the inner city. It’s much more urban here.

Melisa: I’m from a small town in Texas. So I didn’t grow up in big-city schools either.

And based on your experience what’s different about sending them to a school in a more urban environment?

Melisa: School funding and budget cuts are an issue. As as parents we have to be participatory in terms of helping the school and teachers with materials and supplies and snacks. I don’t mind doing it at all, but I don’t think that was really the case for me growing up. I was in a somewhat affluent school situation and I think the schools were able to provide for themselves more than city schools are.

Chris: The thing that I love the most–and I know this isn’t the case for most parents–is the fact that we’re sending our kids to the school they’re zoned for. It’s two blocks from our house. We can walk them to school. Melisa is home, so if something comes up she can walk down the street. It really makes you feel like you’re part of a small community, like you’re in a little village in the middle of the city.

Published on 11.11.10. Interview by Nicole

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School Choice: The Coburn-Gillespie Family

This is the second profile in a series of interviews with parents about the schools they send their children to, by choice or by the randomness of the NYC school system. If you’d like to be profiled, please get in touch.

Family: Christine Gillespie, VP and Associate Publisher of Knopf and Pantheon?(pictured above left) and Melisa Coburn, writer, editor, and blogger, most recently for CafeMom. Together she and Chris write Shiny Brite, a local parenting blog.?Parents of Jasper, age 6, and Magnolia, 4.
Neighborhood: South Slope
Zoned School: P.S. 295, 330 18th St., between 6th and 7th Aves., 718-965-0390. (Insideschools.org review here>>)

BB Kids: So you were in the Center Slope and then you moved to the South Slope?

Melisa: We were zoned for 321 and were in a co-op there, but we bought a house in Park Slope South five years ago.

And at that time your boy Jasper was one?

Melisa: He turned one right around the time we moved into the house, and we hadn’t really checked out the school situation too much, certainly not in any formal way. We just felt like we couldn’t wrap our minds around that then. And also I knew several people who really moved mountains to be in 321 and then, for whatever reason, weren’t happy. So we decided to not make ourselves crazy with it.

Was that a factor in moving? The fact that people weren’t happy with 321?

Chris: We weren’t trying to get away from 321, we just felt like what we heard didn’t tell us that it was such an amazing school that we couldn’t dare leave it.

Melisa: It was more that it was an 800-square-foot apartment, and I know lots of people live in that amount of space and have a kid or even two kids, but it felt too confining for us. The biggest reason that we moved was that we wanted more space. We wanted a house, and we did not want to move to the suburbs.

The fact that you were moving to another part of Park Slope–did you feel confident that it would be a good school? I feel like in Park Slope you have a comfort level in knowing that you are going to be zoned for a good school no matter where you are.

Chris: We propbably did. And we’d been in Park Slope for a long time–we were on the north end of the neighborhood, we were in the center Slope, we were on 9th Street for a while. I don’t think I’m exaggerating, but we really didn’t pay attention to the school situation. We looked in other neighborhoods, we looked as far as Greenpoint, and we didn’t pay as much attention to the schools as we should have, because we certainly know people who moved into districts that were not that desirable.

Melisa: I think it was kind of an afterthought. We were thinking about house and space and what we could afford. And then once we decided on this place, we did say, ‘You know it is Park Slope, and we have been here for a while and we do feel comfortable.’ And we did know we were in District 15 and it’s a big district and there are options. So after we had decided to move here we sort of said, yeah there is a certain comfort level in knowing that it’s familiar Park Slope, it’s District 15, so at least there are options.

So tell me about the school–it seems like a fantastic school.

Melisa: Yes! So when it became time to start thinking about the school situation and what we were going to do, we looked around and saw that 295 was the school we were zoned for. We read a little bit about it, and we went on the tour and we were pretty much the only family there that was zoned for the school. Everybody else was zoned for another school but trying to get into P.S. 295, and we thought, ‘That’s interesting.’

It’s P.S. 295, The Studio School of Arts and Culture, so there’s a focus on the arts in addition to the regular curriculum.

Is this a charter school?

Melisa: It’s not a charter, but it is a magnet school. There’s a real commitment to the arts. Students take dance and movement, drama, art, and music.

From what age?

Melisa: Pre-K. Our younger girl is there in Pre-K, and she has dance and movement today. And currently the school has a partnership with the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, so someone from the conservatory comes to teach music classes to various grades during the week.

And the school has a garden?

Melisa: The school has an edible garden that students and faculty and parent volunteers helped plant. It was funded by a grant from Slow Food NYC and the effort was really spearheaded by the school librarian, Susan Weseen, who is super committed to teaching the kids about green living, about where food comes from and having a connection to food. So this is a new thing, it was planted over the summer, and when the kids came back in the fall, there were all these wonderful fruits and veggies that they were able to harvest and eat.

Have you felt the influence of the school upon their development? Are they more artistic, or doing more creative things at home?

Chris: I would say they already were pretty artistic and creative but definitely I feel like the school has brought that out a little more. And also in terms of their development, the school has been great with our son (because he’s the one who’s been there two years, he’s now in first grade), in looking at his needs exactly and talking with us about what they feel he needs more of in the classroom. I feel like they’ve been very thoughtful about the way he learns and it’s felt very personalized there. And the nice thing about the dance and the drama is that it’s another way to direct their energy and focus in a really positive way outside of the playground. I feel like they really need that, and it helps them learn.

Melisa: It’s a small school, which is another thing that we’ve liked. I think the enrollment is around 400 for grades Pre-K through 5. And I feel that being at home, as the one who does a lot of the dropoffs and pickups, you feel that smallness, because everybody really does know everybody else and I think feels connected and vested in all of the kids succeeding and being happy. I remember going to a performance last year of Jasper’s, and one of the Kindergarten teachers–not his–she was arranging the kids and seemed to know every child’s name, in all three Kindergarten classes. I was really struck by that. It’s not just his teacher who knows him and who’s invested in him, it’s all the teachers across his grade. For being New York City it felt very small town and sweet.

Did you both grow up in cities?

Chris: I grew up all over the place. I moved probably every two years until I was 17, and I went to all different kinds of schools, I went to public, I went to private, single sex, co-ed. I lived in Houston and in Chicago, but not where I was in the inner city. It’s much more urban here.

Melisa: I’m from a small town in Texas. So I didn’t grow up in big-city schools either.

And based on your experience what’s different about sending them to a school in a more urban environment?

Melisa: School funding and budget cuts are an issue. As as parents we have to be participatory in terms of helping the school and teachers with materials and supplies and snacks. I don’t mind doing it at all, but I don’t think that was really the case for me growing up. I was in a somewhat affluent school situation and I think the schools were able to provide for themselves more than city schools are.

Chris: The thing that I love the most–and I know this isn’t the case for most parents–is the fact that we’re sending our kids to the school they’re zoned for. It’s two blocks from our house. We can walk them to school. Melisa is home, so if something comes up she can walk down the street. It really makes you feel like you’re part of a small community, like you’re in a little village in the middle of the city.

Published on 11.11.10. Interview by Nicole

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Kensington family grows 500 pound pumpkin

The Daily News, says a 520 book pumpkin is currently exposed to a House on McDonald's Kensington avenue.?? John Zambito local resident fed Monster pumpkin mixture seeds with fish fertilizer and manure in the ass.?? Wife told the newspaper that before she wrote a sign on pumpkin said his "real", bypassers would poke vegetables with their keys to see if it was natural.? Unusual, because it is, the Kensington pumpkin is much smaller than the record breaker books 1.812, who was recently delivered Wisconsin to the New York Botanical Garden.

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OSU honors family businesses top Oregon page November 18

By: Nancy Raskauskas | Posted the | 19 October 2010 | Comments off

CORVALLIS - VanNatta public relations, Inc., Old Dominion Collision Repair Centers, Ltd., Lum Auto Center and Henningsen Cold Storage Co. are the winners of this year of excellence 2010 Family Business Awards, presented by program the Oregon State University of Austin Business families.
Oregon companies will receive the prize with gratitude for seven finalists, a ceremony to be held from 5: 30 p.m. on 18 November at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tours.Marty, protection protective Fine Foods, will serve as moderator of the event.
More than 170 companies have received this recognition, given that prices were presented in 1988.Pour celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program, Pat Frishkoff, founder and Director of family Austin Business program will be recognized as a professional distinction business family.
The awards recognize the accomplishments of family businesses in innovation, entrepreneurship, commitment and community involvement.
"Family award-winning business can succeed for generations, even in difficult economic conditions, because corporations are adapted to their clients as the families that they meet their communities," said Sherri Noxel, acting program director Austin Family Business.
More than 100 family businesses have been appointed to 2010.Les candidates must then complete the application and a panel of judges will consider all requests to select the finalists.The second stage of the competition requires a presentation to the winner jugement.Un Commission and two finalists are picked for each category of the award.
The Salem VanNatta public relations is the winner in the category microphone, which is open to companies of nine employees or moins.Les said judges the success of the company was founded in part on the parents for the next generation of the freedom to redefine the orientation of the company to reach new customers.
Company ProWorks in Corvallis and Coelho Winery of friendship are finalists in the category of micro.
Old Dominion of Eugene/Springfield collision repair centres has won in the category of small, which is open to business cash 10-24 employees .the ' company has been recognized for the creation of new ways of customer service, and incorporating a sophisticated strategic planning level.
The finalists in this category are models Olufson Corvallis and second glance and schedule of Corvallis.
In the category medium (25-99 employees), Auto Centre of Warrenton Lum took first prize .the ' energy and enthusiasm of this family business - with its growth and support community - was cited by judges as main reasons for the award.
Ray Schultens Motors, slabs and ViewPlus Technologies of Corvallis will have price House as finalists in this category.
The top of large enterprises (100 employees) this year is Henningsen Cold Storage Co. company Hillsboro.Une family for four generations, Henningsen Cold Storage is one of the largest public cold stores in North America storage companies and has been recognized for customer satisfaction company Foundation employees and sustainable practices.
"The demand for the Family Business award process is a good refresher and we give the point of view and experience of other family businesses to guide us in the regions, we can improve, says Mike Henningsen, owner of Henningsen Cold Storage."
The finalist in the large category is killer bread Milwaukie, ore.NatureBake Dave
In addition to family companies, Dean's leadership in the family business award goes this year to Neil Kelly Co. for his leadership in innovation at home, building industry and serving families Oregon in need.
A student award will be awarded to the Zachary Newberg.Olson Olson is with a specialization in entrepreneurship business administration and is one of seven sons working in the second generation family business, Hiland Water Corporation.Le Faculty Awards recognize Steve Lawton, Professor Emeritus at OSU.
Austin at OSU family business program began in 1985 at the suggestion of Joan Austin A - dec based Newberg, Inc. and was staffed by Ken and Joan Austin in 1994.
More information and tickets for the dinner price are available at 1-800-859-7609 or http://www.familybusinessonline.org
-Angela Yeager, Oregon State University

Comments

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OSU honors family businesses top Oregon page November 18

By: Nancy Raskauskas | Posted the | 19 October 2010 | Comments off

CORVALLIS - VanNatta public relations, Inc., Old Dominion Collision Repair Centers, Ltd., Lum Auto Center and Henningsen Cold Storage Co. are the winners of this year of excellence 2010 Family Business Awards, presented by program the Oregon State University of Austin Business families.
Oregon companies will receive the prize with gratitude for seven finalists, a ceremony to be held from 5: 30 p.m. on 18 November at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tours.Marty, protection protective Fine Foods, will serve as moderator of the event.
More than 170 companies have received this recognition, given that prices were presented in 1988.Pour celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program, Pat Frishkoff, founder and Director of family Austin Business program will be recognized as a professional distinction business family.
The awards recognize the accomplishments of family businesses in innovation, entrepreneurship, commitment and community involvement.
"Family award-winning business can succeed for generations, even in difficult economic conditions, because corporations are adapted to their clients as the families that they meet their communities," said Sherri Noxel, acting program director Austin Family Business.
More than 100 family businesses have been appointed to 2010.Les candidates must then complete the application and a panel of judges will consider all requests to select the finalists.The second stage of the competition requires a presentation to the winner jugement.Un Commission and two finalists are picked for each category of the award.
The Salem VanNatta public relations is the winner in the category microphone, which is open to companies of nine employees or moins.Les said judges the success of the company was founded in part on the parents for the next generation of the freedom to redefine the orientation of the company to reach new customers.
Company ProWorks in Corvallis and Coelho Winery of friendship are finalists in the category of micro.
Old Dominion of Eugene/Springfield collision repair centres has won in the category of small, which is open to business cash 10-24 employees .the ' company has been recognized for the creation of new ways of customer service, and incorporating a sophisticated strategic planning level.
The finalists in this category are models Olufson Corvallis and second glance and schedule of Corvallis.
In the category medium (25-99 employees), Auto Centre of Warrenton Lum took first prize .the ' energy and enthusiasm of this family business - with its growth and support community - was cited by judges as main reasons for the award.
Ray Schultens Motors, slabs and ViewPlus Technologies of Corvallis will have price House as finalists in this category.
The top of large enterprises (100 employees) this year is Henningsen Cold Storage Co. company Hillsboro.Une family for four generations, Henningsen Cold Storage is one of the largest public cold stores in North America storage companies and has been recognized for customer satisfaction company Foundation employees and sustainable practices.
"The demand for the Family Business award process is a good refresher and we give the point of view and experience of other family businesses to guide us in the regions, we can improve, says Mike Henningsen, owner of Henningsen Cold Storage."
The finalist in the large category is killer bread Milwaukie, ore.NatureBake Dave
In addition to family companies, Dean's leadership in the family business award goes this year to Neil Kelly Co. for his leadership in innovation at home, building industry and serving families Oregon in need.
A student award will be awarded to the Zachary Newberg.Olson Olson is with a specialization in entrepreneurship business administration and is one of seven sons working in the second generation family business, Hiland Water Corporation.Le Faculty Awards recognize Steve Lawton, Professor Emeritus at OSU.
Austin at OSU family business program began in 1985 at the suggestion of Joan Austin A - dec based Newberg, Inc. and was staffed by Ken and Joan Austin in 1994.
More information and tickets for the dinner price are available at 1-800-859-7609 or http://www.familybusinessonline.org
-Angela Yeager, Oregon State University

Comments

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PI Greene SNAP works to improve the family housing

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By Caitlin Kasunich

Residents at the Auburn Family Shelter in Fort Greene have experienced poor living conditions for over six years, said SNAP officials. (The Brooklyn Ink/Caitlin Kasunich)

Last July, a 25-year-old victim of domestic abuse packed up her belongings, left her apartment with her two children and arrived at the Auburn Family Shelter in Fort Greene in hopes of starting a new life. She had just lost her job as a result of the abuse and thought that she could quickly get the help that she needed to find adequate work and move her family out of the shelter.

Now, three months later, the woman and her kids, ages 4 and 6, are still living in Auburn, a housing development in the midst of the Walt Whitman Houses at 39 Auburn Place that is run by New York City’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS).

According to the woman, her family shares a filthy bathroom with other residents in the building. The room that she shares with her children is also mice-infested. She even eats spoiled sandwiches for lunch every now and then since “some people don’t get to eat.”

“I feel like I’m in a jail,” said the woman, who did not wish to give her name for fear of getting into trouble with the shelter. “I’ve never been in a situation like this.”

Beginning about six years ago, officials from the Fort Greene Strategic Neighborhood Action Partnership (SNAP) at 324 Myrtle Ave. began to take steps to improve conditions for Auburn residents. As residents started to come into SNAP to do work in the organization’s open-access computer lab, they began to talk about the poor conditions in the shelter, and SNAP officials immediately took notice.

Besides addressing the issues of cleanliness, rodent infestation and low-quality food, Fort Greene SNAP has also dealt with a range of other problems in the shelter over the years, including the lack of housing specialists and local daycare opportunities near the shelter, inefficient heating in the building and several citations of asbestos and lead paint hazards, said Georgianna Glose, executive director of SNAP.

“For families, it was a terrible situation,” said Glose, 63. “So, we began to organize the residents.”

Within the last year, residents have even complained to SNAP officials about a case manager who allegedly reeked of alcohol while he was working, and the shelter has since launched an investigation to find out more, said Glose. To make matters worse, DHS also recently decided to move more residents into the shelter since the building was currently half full, said an official from DHS.

As of Oct. 5, the shelter, which can house up to 180 families, was only housing 79 families, so DHS converted the seventh and eighth floors of the 10-story brick building into beds for singles. According to the official, DHS brought in 24 additional single women between these floors at that time.

Although the DHS official stated that this is not a permanent arrangement, the shelter will not be hiring any additional staff members for the new residents, which means that the existing caseworkers will have more tasks to juggle.

To further research residents’ experiences at the shelter, SNAP officials also began to obtain both city and state inspection reports through the Freedom of Information Act. Reports filed by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) and the Routine Site Review Inspection (RSRI) indeed confirmed what residents were saying.

OTDA’s most recent inspection that was completed in June and July 2009, for example, cited the shelter for 14 violations, including the facility’s failure to provide at least two housing specialists to “ensure that adequate and appropriate housing services are provided to families.” Additionally, RSRI’s most recent inspection that was conducted in December 2009 documented seven lead paint hazards, including chipped paint on dining room walls, as well as peeling paint on kitchen walls.

Neither Deborah Harper, the director of the shelter, nor DHS returned calls to comment on these issues.

Since then, however, the shelter has taken action to correct some of the violations that the reports cited last year, said Craig Hughes, community organizer at SNAP. For example, Hughes said that the city has reportedly reserved about 100 spots in four local daycares for residents to take their children while they go to their appointments.

Additionally, in the most recent Auburn Assessment Recreation Center Corrective Action plan dated on Feb. 16, 2010, the shelter stated that it would correct all patching and painting defects by Feb. 27.

Still, many residents at Auburn maintained that the poor conditions in the shelter are far from being solved. Even children who came to live in the shelter with their parents have noticed the problems that still persist.

“The place is nasty,” said a 9-year-old female. “The most disgusting thing about it is that the rats die on the sixth floor where we live. It always stinks like rats.”

To maintain strong communication between SNAP officials and Auburn residents, SNAP workers also hold weekly outreach sessions in front of the shelter to talk directly with people, said Hughes. Since 2008, Hughes said he visits the shelter every day or a few times a week for a couple of hours throughout the year.

And to keep people in the community informed about the shelter’s conditions, Hughes also initiated the Auburn Independent Monitoring Committee at SNAP, which involves a longer-term effort with local elected officials, community activists and other people in the neighborhood who provide additional direction. Carmen Hernandez, a resident of Fort Greene for 19 years, became a member of this committee two years ago and participates in the outreach sessions with Hughes each week.

“I wanted to do more,” said Hernandez, 54. “There are a lot of things that we take for granted every day in our homes that people are lacking. The residents are so angry. They’ll tell you what’s happening. The shelter officials are not pleased that we are there at all.”

Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst for Coalition for the Homeless, added that while shelters that are run directly by DHS tend to have much worse conditions than shelters that are operated by non-profit service providers for unknown reasons, the poor conditions in the Auburn Family Shelter ultimately stem from the failure of the city’s homeless policy as a whole.

“The Bloomberg administration tends to view the homeless problem not as it really is,” said Markee, 45. “It’s a housing affordability problem. Rents are high in New York City, and low-income people, even though they’re lucky enough to have jobs in this kind of economy, just don’t earn enough to afford market rents. Instead of viewing homelessness as that problem, they continue to view it as a behavioral modification problem. They keep touting this ridiculous mantra that if people just go and get jobs, then that’s going to end the problem of homelessness.”

On June 23, 2004, Mayor Bloomberg released a press release announcing his citywide campaign to end homelessness. The campaign included expanding community-based homelessness prevention programs, forming strategies to redirect funds that were locked into shelters into prevention and other housing solutions and re-designing the family intake and eligibility review process with an expansion of prevention and housing-related resources for at-risk and homeless families.

Over the past six years, though, the administration has been widely criticized for some of the programs that it implemented to solve the homeless problem, including one that paid for over 550 families to leave the city as a way of keeping them out of the pricey shelter system, according to a report by the New York Times.

As of Oct. 1, 2010, there were 35,241 total homeless individuals in New York City, including 7,974 families with children, according to the most recent data on DHS’s website. While the lives of some New Yorkers may be beginning to look up due to the weakening recession, the 25-year-old Auburn resident is not feeling too optimistic about her current situation.?

“I don’t think much is going to happen,” she said. “Right now, I’m trying to roll with the punches, but nobody is really helping.”

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