On the ground: Unemployed find a line worth waiting in
It was cold and it was early, but for a chance at what she called a new lease on life, Racquel Reaves wasn’t complaining as she shivered downtown on Monday.
Reaves, a 20-something woman who said she has never held a steady job, lined up with several dozen residents before City Hall’s 9 a.m. opening in hopes of registering for New Haven’s Construction Workforce Initiative, a recruitment effort meant to offer a veritable New Deal to the city’s jobless.
Reaves said the prospect of wearing a hard hat or being handed a hammer or paint brush would be nothing short of a blessing;...
