At times like these money goes into hiding, or so it seems to many of the city's immigrants. For years many of them turned their noses up at certain occasional odd jobs because they had work with an income that allowed them such a luxury. Now, the situation is so precarious for some, that they have turned the streets into their shelter.

Without saying it in so many words, some Mexican immigrants accept that the situation in the United States is bleeding the most vulnerable, especially those who have now lost work and sustenance.

"There are a lot of immigrants living in the streets," said the Mexican social services director José Rojano, and he adds that the streets are now home to many who once had the luxury of picking and choosing among potential jobs.

Rojano, who knows a great number of Mexican immigrant families through his work with Ateneo de México en Nueva York (Atheneum of Mexico in New York, a youth organization) and Centro Comunitario Mexicano (Mexican Community Center), says that this problem is most severe among single young men and among those who did not cultivate their jobs at the right moment.

"Young people who did not know enough to examine closely those opportunities that did come their way are now suffering the consequences. People thought there would always be a bonanza in this country, and now we are in a period when unemployment is higher than ever," he pointed out. Rojano says he's been seeing many cases of young immigrants who are living at God's mercy in the streets.

There is little or nothing that can be done for these people, because in the majority of cases they want to follow their own path, he pointed out. "It's an alarming situation, but such is life. Many of them are going back to Mexico, and others are continuing to risk living in the streets, hoping that the situation will change, or that at least there will be some kind of work so they can get back on their feet," he concluded.