| It was in 1985 that George McDonald quit his job as a sportswear executive to work full-time with New York City's homeless. His Doe Fund aims to find permanent solutions to their plight. Last fall, after a ten-year effort, his most important project, the 74-unit Peter Jay Sharp residence, opened in East Harlem. It's Manhattan's first newly constructed nonprofit single-room-occupancy residence (SRO) in half a century and surely the finest of all time. Premier designer Harry Schnaper contributed the interior design --- crisply black-and-white kitchens and sturdy Mission-style furniture. Tenants share a public dining room, exercise room, even a serene garden in the rear of the redbrick-and-limestone residence. "When I was homeless," says tenant Thomas Milton, "I'd hear people complain about coming home to their bills in the mailbox. This place is so fine that I'm glad to come home to my bills." |
