Just found this article on another site...this is RICH...seems a Episcapal Church here in New York is whining that the areas homeless Americans are wrongfully availing themselves to aid and food MEANT FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS!

That's right, a church is MORE WORRIED about the communities illegal aliens and their needs, than making sure their communities homeless population gets a helping hand...TELL ME HILLIARY, HOW FREAKING GOD LIKE IS THIS BEHAVIOR?

Jornaleros and homeless coexist at Spring Valley center
By SUZAN CLARKE
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: March 7, 2006)

How to help

To volunteer with any of these organizations, or for more information, call


• The Jornaleros Project, 845-356-7722.

• Helping Hands, 845-426-1717, Ext. 18.



SPRING VALLEY

Every morning, the day laborers come to the Jornaleros Project at St. Paul's Episcopal Church for coffee and snacks, shelter from the elements, English lessons and to interact with others.

Increasingly, more and more homeless people are joining them. While the faith-based project — hosted at St. Paul's but operated independently of it — never turns anyone away, the increase in the number of homeless is taxing the limited funding it receives for its mandate to serve immigrant day laborers.

The homeless, who often are American citizens, are eligible for government assistance for which the day laborers, many of whom are undocumented Hispanic immigrants, do not qualify, said Charles Butler, a project coordinator.

When the Jornaleros Project started three years ago, about four or five homeless people would attend, he said. Nowadays, it's grown to about 10 per day.

For the most part, the two groups get along. But there have been some incidents that highlight how the project's inability to handle the scope of the situation is a growing concern for project administrators.

"Sometimes they have needs that are beyond our capacity to meet or to satisfy, and sometimes they may come in with situations that are beyond our scope to handle," said the Rev. Angela Boatright, chairwoman of the Jornaleros board of directors and the church's pastor. "And it's not at all their needs aren't legitimate. They definitely are. It's just that we can't do that."

There are services for homeless people in Rockland who qualify for benefits if they request them, county officials said.

Gregory DeGraw is homeless and has been coming to the Jornaleros Project almost every day for two months.

One weekday last week, DeGraw, 29, and his 21-year-old fiancée arrived at St. Paul's around midmorning, carrying their belongings in small suitcases.

They had slept in a shelter through a program run by Helping Hands, a nonprofit that has been helping the homeless find places to stay during winter nights. They had eaten breakfast at the Rockland Interfaith Breakfast Program at the United Church of Spring Valley, and from there had come to Jornaleros, where they would remain until the program closed for the day about noon.

After that, they planned to go to the Finkelstein Memorial Library to read or use the Internet, and would try to find jobs.

"I think they should have a year-round shelter for people that don't have no place to go, until they can get on their feet," said DeGraw, a Rockland native. He said he became homeless about a year ago after his marriage ended and he lost his assets.

"It's not just families that are homeless; single people are homeless, too," he said.

Others feel differently.

Gary Conklin, who said he is a 54-year-old veteran, has been living mostly on the streets for 25 years. His parents died, then he lost his job. A series of other calamities led him to his current circumstances. Sometimes he lives in abandoned buildings or in a tent in the woods.

Conklin said he picks up a Social Security check every month and collects cans and bottles to supplement his income. He described how, during the harshest months of winter, he gets drunk, gets arrested and gets thrown in jail. He is grateful for the shelter there.

"People don't know, you can survive out there," said Conklin, dressed in a black jacket and green camouflage-style pants. "If you try to, you can do it. I was in New York. It's worse down there."

The tragedy, said C.J. Miller, spokeswoman for County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, is that for those who are eligible and can comply with Department of Social Services requirements, assistance is available.

"That's the heartbreaking part of this, because we do offer the services, but a lot of the time people don't want to avail themselves of it," she said.

Whatever their situations, they keep coming to the Jornaleros Project, which is insufficiently equipped to provide for all their needs.

"If someone has been on medication and they're out on the street and they don't have money to fill their prescription, they're here in a state that is not the best for them. They're not at their best when they're with us," Boatright said.

"We can't really accommodate the things that they rightfully need, and we're hoping that someone will see fit to open a drop-in center someplace where they can get showers. They come here and they're washing in our bathroom sink. That's no place to take showers."

The program's limitations sometimes have been perceived as unfair, she said.

When people who aren't day laborers come to the church and find so much of the programming geared toward immigrants and the communication mostly in Spanish, they mistakenly "feel it's prejudicial," Boatright said.

"We realize it's cold," she said. "We realize you're hungry. So you're welcome to be here, but the money that's here for this program, it's here to sustain this other population."

The project was started with a grant in 2002 and attained nonprofit status last year. It relies primarily on grants and donations. Since its major funding ran out last year, its budget has been halved, said Boatright, who declined to give specific figures.

On average, the project will serve as few as eight immigrant workers per day in the summer at the peak of the labor season, and as many as 100 per day in the winter when outdoor work is scarce.

The project's patrons — both laborers and the homeless — said they tried to get along and instances of friction were negligible.

"There is no problem, because we all have a need and we all have been through this, not having anywhere to live," said Luis Rivera, a 29-year-old from Mexico. "We all feel this."

Eddie Baltazar of El Salvador agreed, saying that the groups sometimes shared items and helped one another. "If this wasn't here, where would we all go?"

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"If this wasn't here, where would we all go?"

Thats a no brainer - GO HOME !

Bill Tibbe[b][b]