To the Editor:
Re "City Revises Plan to Create Jobs for Poor" (news article,
Nov. 21): There has been little open constructive discourse
on how best to spend taxpayer dollars earmarked for the transition
of New York City's poor from welfare to work.
For our group, which trains welfare recipients and places
them in jobs, a thorough assessment of each person seeking work
is integral to our outcomes, and in two years, we have placed
660 people in jobs (51 percent of enrollees compared with 17
percent of those served under the city contracts described in
your article), with impressive long-term retention rates.
I remain concerned about the only people who are truly imperiled
by the current contracting difficulties: those still on welfare
whose five- year time limits are fast approaching. The ticking
of their time clocks must be stopped until we cut through the
morass.
NANCY BIBERMAN
President, Women's Housing
and Economic Development Corp.
Bronx, Nov. 22, 2000
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