The number of coats donated has dropped quite a lot this year.
This reflects the economy, but also I think the realization by many people of the rip-off nature of the drive
I myself have inspected sites at churches in Manhattan where good used coats were supposed to be distributed.
Not only were the coats usually of inferior quality, I literally saw people who worked there picking out the best coats from new deliveries and setting them aside for themselves!
I also wonder how much just gets sold to used clothes dealers in other parts of the world.
Nobody in the media here has ever dared write an expose on this, and they never will
Baby, It's Cold Outside: Coat Donations Down 35 Percent This Year
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Raulo Jeffers (right), 55, at the annual coat drive at the New York City Rescue Mission in Chinatown on Christmas Day 2013.
(Stephen Nessen/WNYC)
Dozens of people lined up on a cold Christmas morning outside
the New York City Rescue Mission in Chinatown hoping to find a donated
coat that might fit and protect against the winter weather.
It was part of the annual New York Cares coat drive:
Tables of colorful parkas, down and top coats spilled over the tables
as volunteers helped the homeless and needy find their size.
David Brown, 56, wearing a puffy down coat was looking for a top coat. He's been homeless for a couple of years and said when he stays at the Bowery Mission, his coat gets washed. Otherwise, he said, it's hard to maintain a coat while living on the streets.
"It don't last too long, because see you get dirty, its gets worn and then you get messed up if you don't have somebody to wash it," he said. "If you're not constantly taking care of it, it don't last long."
New York Cares, known for its posters of a huddled and shivering Statue of Liberty has been organizing coat drives for 25 years. The organization received about 123,000 coats last year. This year, however, it only has 80,000 coats to provide, according to the group's executive director Gary Bagley.
He thinks the surge in donations after Hurricane Sandy last year combined with recent warm weather may account for the 35-percent decline in donations this year.
"It's hard for us, on a warm day, to realize what it might be like to live on the streets when its 19 degrees out or 12 degrees," Bagley said. "By the time people realize how cold it is out, people already need the coats."
His group will be accepting new and gently used coats from now until February. Bagley said large men's and children's coats are always in high demand.
The New York City Rescue Mission expects to give out coats to 150 people this Christmas.
David Brown, 56, wearing a puffy down coat was looking for a top coat. He's been homeless for a couple of years and said when he stays at the Bowery Mission, his coat gets washed. Otherwise, he said, it's hard to maintain a coat while living on the streets.
"It don't last too long, because see you get dirty, its gets worn and then you get messed up if you don't have somebody to wash it," he said. "If you're not constantly taking care of it, it don't last long."
New York Cares, known for its posters of a huddled and shivering Statue of Liberty has been organizing coat drives for 25 years. The organization received about 123,000 coats last year. This year, however, it only has 80,000 coats to provide, according to the group's executive director Gary Bagley.
He thinks the surge in donations after Hurricane Sandy last year combined with recent warm weather may account for the 35-percent decline in donations this year.
"It's hard for us, on a warm day, to realize what it might be like to live on the streets when its 19 degrees out or 12 degrees," Bagley said. "By the time people realize how cold it is out, people already need the coats."
His group will be accepting new and gently used coats from now until February. Bagley said large men's and children's coats are always in high demand.
The New York City Rescue Mission expects to give out coats to 150 people this Christmas.
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Stephen Nessen, Reporter, WNYC News
Stephen Nessen reports for the WNYC Newsroom and can often be heard live on Morning Edition.
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