Each day, seven days a week, they bag some 4,000 pounds of trash. Paid six dollars an hour, they also receive a wide range of counseling.

While the neighborhood is cleaner and many of those workers have graduated to real jobs since the program began in 1997, support for the Partnership is lagging, according to its director Lynn Faria.

“We’re going to have to cut back on service we provide because we have a big budget gap,” she said. This month the Partnership is launching a fund-raising drive aimed at residents. Faria said they need to raise $50,000 by June.

The program began, Faria said, on the premise that it could survive largely on contributions by businesses—the winning formula for its older, sister program, the Soho Partnership. But Tribeca turned out to be different.

Faria said that contributions from local businesses to clean their blocks (it costs $1,500 to $2,000 per year for one side of a block) peaked in 2001. “We were getting a lot of support from businesses in the neighborhood, and reaching a point where we saw growth. Then the economy changed and so many businesses closed and moved.” The expiration of a state contract has further squeezed the organization, she said.

Faria said the Partnership, which once cleaned about three-fourths of the neighborhood, now does half. But, she added, supporting the group is not just about clean sidewalks. “We’re changing people’s lives,” she said.

To help, call 212-274-0550 ext. 59.