Homeless people need all the help and support the government can give. Unfortunately, some are left to their own devices and they end up sinking deeper into poverty.
What they need are jobs. When a person feels productive, so many things can change, and these are often for the good.
In a pilot program that’s meant as an answer to the homelessness problem that’s happening in Kansas City, the state made sure that they were provided with part-time work. This helped many immensely especially when getting the housing they desperately needed.
Kansas City Missouri has also now witnessed a lowering in litter collection because the pandemic slowed down court cases and community service clean-up programs.
By putting 26 of the city’s 1,800 homeless people to work, changes happened. They made them clean the streets that they stayed in. This move targeted two issues in one go and they were able to remove more than 67,000 pounds of trash by the time the work time ended and this also gave the homeless workers the ability to consider themselves “employed” on a housing application.
“We really wanted to focus on people that were homeless in the truest sense of the word,” said Doug Langner. He is the executive director of Hope Faith, a Christian non-profit that aims to help more than 200 homeless residents living in the city.
“It was an awkward feeling at first: they’re punching-in in the day, [and] they punch out and are back on the streets that night,” he told Fast Company.
During this time, Hope Faith was able to employ 5 homeless workers and paid them $15 an hour, 4 of whom were able to apply for long-term housing by the end of the 3-month work-trial period.
Another non-profit called Creative Innovative gave 6 of their 21 workers jobs that were able to secure housing.
By January of 2023, the program will increase the workforce to 46 trash collectors, half homeless and half long-term prison inmates that are rejoining society. This is funded by 7 non-profit organizations.
We can only hope that the other countries follow in their footsteps because while these people may not work like the rest do, many simply need to get that shot in order to prove themselves. When they feel that somebody deeply believes in them, big changes are sure to take place.
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