By Alexander Dworkowitz
A group of businessmen has banded together to pay an organization employing the homeless to help clean downtown Flushing.
The newly formed Destination Flushing Inc. signed a contract with the Doe Fund Inc. for one year’s worth of sanitation services in the office of Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) Friday.
The $60,000 contract calls for three Doe Fund workers to clean sidewalks, clear the crosswalks of snow during wintertime and empty garbage cans overflowing with trash, leaving the bags next to the can for the city to pick up. Doe Fund workers will be on the street eight hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year, with the exception of 10 holidays off.
Business garbage will continue to be picked up by the city and private carters.
The new service takes aim at downtown Flushing’s abundance of trash, which over the years often has been residents’ No. 1 complaint about the area.
The work is slated to begin Nov. 10.
“We are going to see immediate results right away on our streets,” said Liu, who put Destination Flushing in touch with the Doe Fund.
The clean-up work is the first effort by a new group of 11 businessmen, who have agreed to absorb the $60,000 cost equally for the year.
“As the business people in this community, it is our duty to make improvements in this community,” said one of the 11 businessmen, Yee Leung, who runs International Entertainment Marketing on 40th Road. “The first thing we do is clean up, get the garbage out.”
The Doe Fund is a non-profit group which seeks to help the homeless find jobs and begin a new chapter in their lives. Living in the Doe Fund’s shelters, the homeless men and women are paid to clean streets from the Upper West Side to downtown Brooklyn, wearing blue uniforms which read: “Ready, Willing & Able.”
Many of the Doe Fund workers have struggled with drug addiction. As part of the program, the Doe Fund mandates that all of its workers be tested for drug use twice a week.
“They’re going to become contributing members of society,” said Doe Fund founder George McDonald of the workers who have been assigned to Flushing.
The workers will patrol Main Street from Northern Boulevard to Sanford Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue from Prince Street to Union Street, 40th Road from Prince Street to Main Street, the Lippman Arcade and a short section of Kissena Boulevard.
The contract comes as a steering committee is investigating bringing a Business Improvement District to downtown Flushing.
In a BID, property owners in a particular area agree to pay an assessment in exchange for services such as extra trash pickups, security patrols and advertising.
A BID has eluded Flushing for many years, but leaders are hopeful the steering committee’s proposal will eventually be accepted by property owners.
If the BID does come to downtown Flushing, the Doe Fund workers may not be needed, Liu said.
The contract contains a clause allowing the business owners to cancel the agreement on a month’s notice. The clause is likely to be enacted if a BID is established.
Liu cautioned that the Doe Fund would not solve downtown Flushing’s sanitation problems. The councilman pointed out that Doe Fund workers could not legally touch the trash bags put out by businesses that often clog up sidewalks.
Craig Trotta, deputy director of work and training with the Doe Fund, predicted visitors to Flushing as well as residents would become more mindful about where they put their litter once they were walking on cleaner streets.
“People will become to be a little more attentive to what’s around them,” he said.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
