Ready, Willing & Able | The Doe Fund

NEW YORK—Getting homeless people jobs by cleaning dirty streets seems like a no-brainer. For Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) it certainly is.

Gennaro announced Monday that he increased his annual budget allocation to the Doe Fund to $82,500, enabling the organization’s cleaning operations to include Briarwood.

The nonprofit organization’s street cleaning initiative started six years ago on Main Street in Queens’s Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood with Gennaro’s money allocation. The “men in blue” have been cleaning up Main Street from Melbourne Avenue to 76th Road.

MEN IN BLUE: (L-R) Assemblyman Rory Lancman's Chief of Staff Jane Carey, Briarwood Community Association President Seymour Schwartz and Vice President Elke Maerz, and Councilman James Gennaro stand with the men of blue by Briarwood subway station. (Courtesy of Councilman Gennaro's Office)

The increased funding will allow a crew of three cleaners to provide supplemental street cleaning five days a week in Briarwood’s shopping district along Queens Boulevard and around the Briarwood subway station. The funding will also provide transitional work to formerly homeless persons who are participating in the organization’s Ready, Willing & Able program.

“The Doe Fund service has been serving my district with phenomenal results for several years now, and I am happy to be able to extend their excellent services to Briarwood,” said Gennaro in a press release. “I want to thank the Doe Fund for their hard work and service to our community.”

The Doe Fund aims to develop and implement low-cost and holistic programs to give job training, work opportunities, and housing assistance to homeless and unemployed New Yorkers, according to its website.