In March, shortly after I moved to New York, I wrote in this space about meeting a woman named Carol who asked me to help her get something to eat one Saturday before the daily Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church. You might remember that Carol was another member of the 'burgh diaspora.
An update: Carol was outside Xavier today after that same 12:05 p.m. Mass. We again went to lunch during which she told me some good news. After some six years of living in shelters, she and her son, David, moved about a month ago to a two-bedroom apartment on the fourth floor of a new seven-story building on 124th Street on the west side of Harlem. Carol told me they qualified for their new place through Section 8.
"It's such a weight off my shoulders," she said.
I've been grumbling a lot lately about the amount of taxes the Feds take out of each paycheck. (I'm never more of small-government Libertarian-Republican than on pay day.) So, it's nice see some of those dollars at work -- it's just unfortunate that it takes so long for homeless people who truly need housing to get through the system.
Carol told me that her son, age 18, is now going to take the G.E.D. exam and is applying for jobs.
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