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A middle-aged biker with a very tidy beard is leaning against the polished brass handrail on the front steps of an old hotel as life on the busy New York street bustles by. He greets a reedy old man as he leaves, while a young guy, zoned out on his iPod, hurries in.
But when the occasional stray tourist tries to check in, they discover that The Prince George is no longer a hotel. In 1999, this crumbling, historic building was meticulously restored and converted into 'permanent supportive housing' for a mix of more than 400 formerly homeless adults and low-income professionals. The unique organisation that accomplished this, and now runs it and several others in the city, is called Common Ground. It has a simple, bold mission: Solve Homelessness. Does that have a similar ring to World Peace, End Poverty, or, perhaps, the Holy Grail?
'There is a five-year plan under way. By 2010 there will be no chronic homelessness in New York City,' says a smiling but steely- eyed Rosanne Haggerty, founder and president of Common Ground. Her project is one of the keys to reaching that goal and Common Ground's social and financial ideas are spreading to other US cities and are ripe for 'export' to Britain.
The purpose-designed little studios at The Prince George, on 28th Street near the Flat Iron Building, are rented out cheaply to a combination of people who were previously homeless and those who have never been on the streets but have a low income, averaging $15,000 (pounds 8,300) a...