This New Yorker is helping struggling straphangers one bluegrass song at a time.
Will Boyajian, a performer in the 42 Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal station, collects plenty of cash with his busking — but he gives away every dime before calling it a day.
“If you’re homeless or need help take as much as you need from the case,” a handwritten sign, propped up against a black guitar case filled with dollar bills, reads.
Boyajian doesn’t stop anyone from dipping into the pot, which gets as high as $400 a day, trusting that those who take money really need it.
He said only a handful of people have actually cleared out the entire guitar case.
“It’s really wild, some people come up and take a dollar or take five dollars, some people come up and take eighty dollars… it’s not my job to judge, it’s just my job to give.”
His goal is to end each day with zero dollars. If there’s leftover, he buys single-ride Metro Cards and passes them out or hands out dollars on the street.
He said a young man with a dog struck a chord with him Sunday night.
“I probably had forty or fifty left and my voice was trashed and I wanted to go home,” Boyajian recounted.
“I said just empty it out man… Treat yourself. And [he said] it’s enough for one of those hotels that let the dogs come and he told the dog ‘Moby, we’re going to be okay.’”
The 26-year-old started his “Hopeful Cases” campaign about a week ago and wants to change the way New Yorkers think about giving.
“When I first moved to the city… this dude got on the train…and was clearly homeless,” the shaggy haired guitar player told The Post.
“The whole train moved away. None of us will ever experience that type of rejection in our lives.”
Boyajian saved up money for the project by spending eight months as a performer on Norwegian cruise lines.
Struggling New Yorkers on the platform Monday afternoon were grateful for Boyajian’s help.
“I think it’s beautiful because people don’t know what you can do with ten dollars… it’s two boxes of cereal and milk,” said Christopher Smith, who took two five dollar bills from the pile.
Keith Owens, 50, who has been homeless off and on since the 1990s and isn’t currently receiving any welfare, grabbed a handful of bills and thanked Boyajian for the cash.
“I told him I’d leave some for someone else, I didn’t take it all,” Owens told The Post.
Leslie Glascock from Huntington, LI, watched her daughter hand Boyajian a dollar bill and called the project “fantastic.”
“We need more people like that… I think it reflects New York so well.”
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