Heavy, the last chronically homeless man in the area, has lived on the streets of Times Square for decades.
Posted on 03/29/2010 1:39:19 PM PDT by JoeProBono
NEW YORK, March 29 (UPI) -- A homeless man known only as "Heavy" is the last habitually homeless man hanging out in New York City's Time Square, social workers say.
Social agencies and charities have been working years to empty the streets around what is arguably a U.S. symbol of good times. By 2005, they were down to 55 homeless people and the number fell to seven in 2009.
Now there is just Heavy, The New York Times reported Monday. He's spent decades in Times Square, always passing up offers of housing and declining to reveal anything about himself.
Those whose paths he crosses describe him as quiet with possible mental health issues, the newspaper said. Some shops give him food and neighbors slip him a little money or clothing. He doesn't harass anyone and his panhandling is low-key.
"He is a sweetheart," said Nanny, an 82-year-old woman who encounters Heavy regularly. "He sees me coming and says, 'Hi, Mommy,' and I say, 'Hi, honey.' And I give him his quarter, and I go on with my business."
Rosanne Haggerty, president of the non-profit organization Common Ground, says she has known Heavy since at least 1990.
"He's kind of iconic," Haggerty said. "He would leave for periods and then return, and some days we would actually succeed in getting him inside. But he has this fascination with the life in Times Square.
"We are continuing to plug away to find the right housing solution for Heavy."
Heavy, the last chronically homeless man in the area, has lived on the streets of Times Square for decades.
So he has a monopoly?
So, he’s the King of Times Square?
Something amusing in armies of social workers tyring to help the last homeless guy in Times Square — and he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them.
Apparantly - a heavy monopoly
Maybe, just maybe ‘Heavy’ doesn’t want your help Common Ground lady.
How many are living inside the subway tunnels?
A cinematic portrait of the homeless population who live permanently in the underground tunnels of New York City....
I guess he hasn’t heard that the army of living dead (homeless) have assembled in Penn Station.
If there are no more homeless men in Times Square, the Disneyfication will be complete and the social workers will be out of work.
How is he going to pay for his mandatory health care insurance?
Thanks for my “laugh of the day”!
Described as the home video from hell, Doin' Time in Times Square documents the view and action outside director Charlie Ahearn's 43rd Street apartment window from 1981 to 1983. Charlie Ahearn, whose 1983 film Wild Style was a cult hip hop hit, was "blessed" with a generous view of the sleeze emporiums up Eighth Avenue and down 43rd. His window provides a view into midtown New York's street brutality in those dark years before it was "cleaned up" and "Disneyfied", His Hi-8 camera captures rip-offs, drug sales, police stake-outs and fights - lots of fights. On any given day we see fist-fights, domestic squabbles and bad deals going down. It is both a social and personal document.
Did the libs give him a free grocery shopping cart to solve all of his problems yet?
Homelessness was unknown in this country before we closed down 90% of our psychiatric beds in the 60’s and 70’s.
The revitalization of Times Square helped push up property values and tourist trade, but it’s still just a “not in my neighborhood” concept.
Running the homeless off to districts less frequented by tourists doesn’t make the problem go away.
It’s like sweeping the dust under the rug.
Since Obama was elected - homelessness has been SOLVED!
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