For two years and three months, the only fresh air Steve Mancuso managed to breathe came from an open window in his small, second-floor walk-up in Queens.
Mancuso had a bad fall on a wet bathroom floor. He developed an infection and 16 months later, in May 2012, his right leg was amputated below the knee.
The state of New York is failing to address a growing hunger crisis affecting seniors, veterans and children around the state, according to the managers of food banks and pantries that gathered Wednesday at the Capitol in Albany.
The group is asking lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to approve $16.5 million more for the state’s Hunger Prevention and NutritionAssistance Program, an amount that they say amounts to a pittance when put in context of a $145 billion state budget.
Many city dwellers do their best not to see the homeless people who share their streets and pavements. Donald Trump once famously insisted that his security guards clear all tramps and panhandlers from the pavement in front of Trump Tower. Even when the homeless aren’t being chased away, they can seem invisible. In 2014, the New York City Rescue Mission, a shelter, conducted a social experiment, Make Them Visible, in which they filmed participants walking past relatives disguised as homeless people. None of the participants noticed their relations sitting on the street. “We don’t look at them. We don’t take a second look,” said Michelle Tolson, director of public relations for the organisation.