Newly Homeless Couple: Another Charming New York Story
Yesterday's Metropolitan Diary item in the Times about an unhappy stockbroker who'd just lost millions and was offered a Diet Coke because it "helps a lot" reminds us of another story that maybe the Diary could use: Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn tells us about Frances and Frank, an odd couple from St. John's Place in Brooklyn -- she mentally ill, he elderly and perhaps confused. Seems their landlord evicted them from their longtime apartment, and threw them a $40,000 settlement, which wouldn't get them far even if it weren't tied up in a "special needs trust" controlled by the disturbed woman's guardian.
Well, some kind soul took them all to the Eligibility Investigation Office to see about recourse. The city representatives thought the forty grand should suffice to house the hapless duo; the guardian insisted they be sheltered by the city. Finally Frances stormed out, and at last report she and Frank were riding the subways through the night to stay out of the rain. If the Diary editors would prefer, we could have someone say something piquant to them at the end, like "Why don't you throw yourselves in front of a train, so this living nightmare would be over?"
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