I know times are so tough that all the hard-luck stories that have been piling up may have nearly exhausted your store of sympathy. But pause for just a moment to consider this heart-rending account of the plight of some the West Coast's downtrodden. As told by the Los Angeles Times, because of an inability of some people to get government-provided converter box coupons, "Digital TV may bypass skid row":
A glitch in the Commerce Department program that administers the coupons has left Richardson and many other poor Americans unable to receive them. The problem lies in where they live.
Single-room occupancy hotels such as the Sanborn, which is operated by the Skid Row Housing Trust, are classified by the federal government as business addresses, not residential, and therefore are ineligible.All single-room occupancies, group homes and other housing provided by nonprofit groups are excluded, said Bart Forbes, a spokesman for the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
