In October 2019, CBS News reported on a Manhattan woman who papered the block with flyers for Johnell Johnson. He had slept on the same stoop on West 22nd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood for more than a year. He had decades of experience in the food industry. He became homeless after a 20-year relationship ended.
Neighbors on the block knew him well. They called him the honorary mayor, because he greeted everyone who walked past. One of them, Jennifer Mallicote, told CBS News that talking with him had changed her outlook. “He doesn’t ask for anything,” she said.
Another neighbor, Julie Benlevi, decided to do something about his job search. She put up more than 100 copies around the neighborhood, each one promoting Johnson for work. She also went with him to interviews. Mallicote gave him an old cellphone so employers could reach him.
A neighbor put up more than 100 flyers around the block and went with him to interviews.
Residents also got Johnson a membership at a local recreation center, where he could shower and shave. Benlevi said the goal was plain: “We want to get him off the streets before winter time.”
The neighbors set up an Instagram page to help him find opportunities. On that page, Johnson said he got a job at Gran Tivoli, a restaurant in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. He also wrote, “I’m looking forward to sleeping in a bed as soon as I am able.”
CBS News did not report whether he found housing, or how long the job lasted. We do not know how the story went from there.
“It could be any of us at any time.”
The part worth noticing
That line is Mallicote’s, and she said it about the man on the stoop. She did not say it about a stranger.
Johnson’s needs were specific. He needed a way for employers to reach him, someone to speak up for his experience, and a place to get cleaned up before an interview. Each of those was something one of his neighbors could do. They did it one at a time, on the same block, over the same weeks.
We think about stories like this one a lot. We also told another job story, about a man who held up his own sign. The people in both stories had no connection to us. In most cases the help is already nearby. The missing piece is knowing who needs what.
Where this story comes from
Originally reported by CBS News, by Caitlin O’Kane, published October 16, 2019. Retold here with the details as that report gives them. The people in this story have no connection to MeetaNeed.
