In the early 1980s, the idea that homeless people were beyond redemption had taken hold in New York City. It was generally believed that they could not possibly become productive, contributing, self-sufficient citizens. They were too “crazy, lazy, damaged or weak” – society’s burdens. The best we could hope to do was take care of them.

In 1984, George T. McDonald entered Grand Central Terminal, where hundreds of homeless people then sought shelter, with the intention of learning who they were and how they might be helped. For years a successful businessman, George had come to a point where he was no longer able to turn away from the panorama of human suffering that was presenting itself every day on New York City’s streets. He closed down his business and became involved in politics, first coordinating Ted Kennedy’s 1980 presidential primary bid, then running for Congress himself on a platform of ending homelessness. At the same time, he began volunteering to feed the homeless people in Grand Central, bringing sandwiches and advocating for them on a crisis-by-crisis basis, because, at the time, those were the only solutions available.

But the homeless people that George fed and befriended, told him again and again that, while they greatly appreciated the sandwich, what they really needed – and wanted – was “a room and a job to pay for it.” With a room and a job, they could get back on their feet and begin to build better lives.

George knew that a job had to come first, but the idea of putting homeless people to work was radical at the time. He believed that work was the way to build both an economic base and a renewed sense of confidence, responsibility, inclusion and self-worth. He also believed in the people themselves – that they could and would seize a meaningful, well-structured opportunity to leave degradation and dependency behind, give up drugs and other self-destructive behaviors, work hard and succeed.

In 1985, an elderly woman, known only as “Mama,” who George had fed and befriended in Grand Central died of exposure after being forcibly ejected from the Terminal on Christmas Eve. This tragic event galvanized George to found The Doe Fund in memory of Mama and the countless other anonymous people who live and die on our city streets every year. He began formulating the idea for a residential paid-work program for homeless people – “a room and a job to pay for it” – that would allow them to put homelessness behind them for good.

In 1988, George and his wife, Harriet Karr-McDonald, applied for and were awarded two city contracts: one to employ homeless people to renovate city-owned low-income housing; the other to buy and renovate a building in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where program participants would live. On January 2, 1990, Ready, Willing & Able, the first residential paid-work and training program for homeless people in America was born.

It has not been a straight road for Ready, Willing & Able or for the people it serves. In 1995, despite the extraordinary success of the program, a change in city housing policy cut The Doe Fund’s work contract by 60%. Suddenly, there were 70 formerly homeless men living in the Bedford-Stuyvesant facility – free of drugs and ready, willing and able to work – without enough work for them to do.

George stood strong. There was no way he was sending the men back to the streets or to other dangerous, dead-end shelters. He knew the city was facing a fiscal crisis of its own and could offer no help, so he came up with another brilliant, bold and innovative idea. He took The Doe Fund’s remaining money and bought the bright blue uniforms with the American flag on the shoulder that, today, are as much a part of the New York City landscape as yellow cabs. The men of Ready, Willing & Able put them on, picked up brooms and dustbins and pushed big blue buckets onto East 86th Street, then an eyesore on the elegant Upper East Side. “If you clean it up, the community will see and appreciate your efforts,” George told them. “They will support you.”

He was right. Not only did contributions from grateful New Yorkers pour in, but the “men in blue” accomplished the seemingly impossible: they cleaned up not only East 86th Street, but neighborhoods throughout New York City, as the Ready, Willing & Able program grew and flourished. In time, The Doe Fund began winning private contracts for its cleaning services and creating other businesses to serve as paid-work and training opportunities for homeless people, while also helping to support the program.

Today, the “men in blue,” as they have come to be known, clean more then 150 miles of New York City streets and sidewalks every day, a service profoundly appreciated by community residents. The Doe Fund now runs six Ready, Willing & Able facilities – four in New York City, one in Jersey City and one in Philadelphia. Most important, over 2,250 formerly homeless people have used Ready, Willing & Able as a bridge back to their families and communities, emerging from the program with their self-respect and sobriety and permanent jobs and housing – just what they had asked George for in Grand Central.