First the Homeless, Now the Jobless

The health concern took the largest hit. Of the seventeen people given the boot, eleven were from the medical unit, including three of its five social workers. The senior-most employee to go was a nurse-manager who had worked at Camillus for six and a half years. (Greer and Paul contend that services have not been affected; remaining staff and volunteers have compensated.)

In management's defense, Johnson says all the employees received generous severance packages, and the managers settled on their short list after careful consideration of factors such as age, gender, race, and seniority. "We had to be very careful -- some employees are former homeless, so we didn't want to start the cycle over again," he sighs. "It was a real grueling process."