A new partnership between Metro Transit and a local homeless sanctuary will put displaced people to work cleaning light rail stations.
For Metro Transit, the cleanup crews are apart of a larger plan to clean up station across the Twin Cities.
Listening House Sanctuary Executive Director Molly Jalma say for the workers this means earning weekly paychecks, which during the holidays can be a complete game-changer.
"When you don't have money, everything's closed to you," says Jalma. "And so the world has really opened up for people in this program, and it's not that they're wealthy and everything's great now. By no means. But we all know that money does make a difference. It does help push people forward and that's very evident this time of year, of course."
Jalma says not only is the program helping give people a job opportunity, it will also provide a consistently safe, clean and welcoming environment for Metro Transit riders.
Jalma says the program already see the positive impacts of the program on residents.
"People who we serve, they're either ignored or treated sort of harshly, right? So now we have folks with these purple vests on cleaning," she adds. "And they get thank you's, and people bring them Gatorade, and they're really brought in as part of the community."
A federal grant of $750,000 helps pay the workers through early 2025.