Albuquerque Has An Idea To Help The Homeless And It Seems To Be Working

[M II A II R II K]

This Republican mayor has an incredibly simple idea to help the homeless. And it seems to be working.


August 11th, 2016

By Colby Itkowitz



Read More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...to-be-working/

Republican Mayor Richard Berry was driving around Albuquerque last year when he saw a man on a street corner holding a sign that read: “Want a Job. Anything Helps.”

- Berry had taken to driving through the city to talk to panhandlers about their lives. His city’s poorest residents told him they didn’t want to be on the streets begging for money, but they didn’t know where else to go. Seeing that sign gave Berry an idea. Instead of asking them, many of whom feel dispirited, to go out looking for work, the city could bring the work to them.

- Next month will be the first anniversary of Albuquerque’s There’s a Better Way program, which hires panhandlers for day jobs beautifying the city. In partnership with a local nonprofit that serves the homeless population, a van is dispatched around the city to pick up panhandlers who are interested in working. The job pays $9 an hour, which is above minimum wage, and provides a lunch.

- In less than a year since its start, the program has given out 932 jobs clearing 69,601 pounds of litter and weeds from 196 city blocks. And more than 100 people have been connected to permanent employment. --- Berry’s effort is a shift from the movement across the country to criminalize panhandling.

- Kellie Tillerson, director of Employment Services at St. Martin’s Hospitality Center, the organization that facilitates the city’s program, said the way to dispel people of the negative associations with panhandlers is for them to do what the mayor did and engage on a human level. --- The There’s a Better Way van employs about 10 workers a day but could easily take more.

- Dozens of cities around the country have reached out to Berry wanting to copy the program. It’s a testament, he said, to the work mayors do regardless of political party. He was the first Republican mayor elected in Albuquerque in 30 years, and he’s proactively tackling homelessness. --- The program hasn’t weeded out all panhandling in the city.

- Supporters say that’s not really the point. It’s connecting people who would otherwise not seek help to needed services. And it’s showing them when they are at their lowest that they have real value, and that others are willing to show them kindness to help them have a better life. “It’s helping hundreds of people,” Berry said, “and our city is more beautiful than ever.”

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[llamaorama]

This kind of thing obviously helps. Get people on a routine, with a sense they are earning monetary reward for something that also gives them purpose, and giving them something to list as work experience is good for making them feel "normal" and hopeful about what they can do to help themselves. The other steps I think would be dealing with psychological issues, assisting individuals with transportation, and assisting people in getting their personal effects in order(like ID's, mailing addresses, wrapping up loose ends).

I do worry though that in the long term, there might be more volunteers than jobs for them to do. OR the people running the program will give into temptation and start seeing these volunteers as a cheap labor force to be exploited. The state might make volunteering a mandatory thing to receive benefits, in which case there won't be any incentive to make the program fair.

In some countries this kind of thing is a requirement for being on welfare. No surprise, "volunteers" get paid less than minimum wage and experience working conditions which would violate labor laws. The progressive side of the program that is supposed to help people is usually neglected- I believe some Dutch cities even give alcoholics access to beer as a reward because it makes them more pliant even though it probably keeps them dependent. Because every dysfunctional or indigent or ex-criminal person out there goes through the "volunteer" program, participation is less a signal to future employers or other people that this person is trying to turn their life around, and instead its a stigma and a black mark that indicates a person isn't responsible or reliable.

Nothing like this is ever really simple. The only way it can work is if the people running the program are disciplined and actually care about its mission. I noticed the story begins with "the mayor, who is a Republican...". Sometimes old-school Republicans do act the way that the people vote for them expect to, but most of the time at the State and Federal level they feed off cynicism and exist to serve elite interests instead. They'd be the exact kind of people to ruin this program by making it like prison labor: take away the wages given to participants or charge them fees that exactly match the wages, and selling them out as quasi-slaves to some connected business.

[hauntedheadnc]

Seems like it's basically the CCC and WPA on the micro level.