One winter night in the early 1980s, an elderly homeless woman known only as “Mama” was kicked out of Grand Central Terminal and died on the street from exposure. Her scarf led the police to George McDonald, an executive who had been giving food, warm clothing and scarves like the one she was wearing to those struggling with life on the streets.

The woman’s death inspired McDonald to start the Doe Fund, named after the unidentified “Mama Doe” who died in the streets that night. The Doe Fund runs the Ready, Willing and Able program for homeless men in New York.

“He became an advocate for those people,” said Nazerine Griffin, an ex-con who has worked as a program director for Ready, Willing and Able since his graduation from the program in 1995. “We go back to Grand Central to do a vigil every year; light a candle, say a prayer, make sure that this never happens again to anybody.”

The program has traditionally helped homeless men – many of them formerly incarcerated — get off the streets, overcome drug addiction and become self-sufficient through manual labor, counseling and skills training. Griffin believes, though, that the economic slowdown is likely to bring people to the program whose backgrounds are not as gritty.

“I expect a different type of client coming in for the first time,” Griffin said. “The guy whose career has changed not because he used drugs, but because the company doesn't exist anymore.”

Job placement for graduates will likely suffer in the current recession, Griffin said. Now, the majority of Ready, Willing and Able graduates are placed into jobs in facilities maintenance, transportation and food service. As public budgets shrink, such jobs will become scarcer, making it more difficult for trainees to find full-time work, a key component on the path to self-sufficiency.