ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Some cities are hiring the homeless to pick up trash and paying them with gift cards and other assorted items. It begs the question if a city with combined homelessness and littering issues like St. Louis could do the same.
KMOX's Charlie Brennan and Amy Marxkors talked to Jenni Bergal, a reporter with Stateline, who covers state and local governments, and an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts who looked into how various cities are handling this.
“It’s happening in Oakland, California where they have a big program where they are allocating half a million dollars, and another $250,000 for an internship program for these people to try to help them graduate and get full time jobs," she says. "In Pueblo, Colorado the city is using money from the American Rescues Plan to start a program for homeless to pick up trash. Tacoma, Washington also started a similar program."
Most of the cities are not directly hiring the homeless to pick up the trash, instead they are funding local non-profits to do the hiring. Jenni ergal talked to two homeless people employed by a program in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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“For them they loved it. It was a chance to not only earn money but try to get their lives back together again," she says.
She also met a woman in Oakland who was living on the streets after losing her job and mom to cancer. She heard about the Downtown Streets Team that pays homeless up to $120 a week. She is now works for the organization as an outreach counselor and works a second job as a residential counselor.
No work yet if St. Louis is planning to pursue similar programs.
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