Jobs for Homeless People

[ysabetwordsmith]

Portland pays homeless residents to clean up trash: 'This gives people purpose'

The initiative hires people with a history of homelessness to pick up waste alongside designated routes, provide tent-side trash collection to people living outside, and more. Workers are paid between $20 and $29 per hour by the city of Portland, Multnomah County, and the Lloyd Enhanced Services District.


This is a great start.

What we really need are work centers where anyone can go ant get paid for doing the long list of stuff that needs done, which a choice what tasks to take.  Plenty of that is work that needs little or no skill.  Some is more skilled and could be done by people who already have that experience -- or it could be used to help people acquire more job skills.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

In days past, there used to be boards outside of churches, or just inside, where people would post 'help wanted' job notices and those that needed a few extra coins, or a hot meal and a place to stay for the night, would trade work for what they needed.

Something like that needs to be reinstated.

But, I suspect nowadays that would get shut down quickly by The Authorities as it's 'encouraging' the homeless or illegal immigrants or some such nonsense. I mean, it's even illegal for charities to just feed the 'un-housed', right?

[gatheringrivers]

That and not as many churchgoers these days.

[siliconshaman]

Fair point, back when this was a thing pretty much everyone went to church, or at least *past* it on the way to the pub...(two things every village had in England, a pub and a church)

Nowadays, I'm not certain there is an equivalent somewhere where a job notice could be posted and a sizable fraction of people would see it.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I've seen community bulletin boards in various places -- stores, restaurants, libraries, etc. Most are a hodgepodge of items for sale, people offering services, event flyers, and so forth. They can be very useful.

America has a serious loss of "third spaces," places to go that are not a home or workplace, where people can just hang out and socialize. It's undermining already fragile social structure.

One thing I noticed about Greenup, whose events we adore, is that they have a great function space. The town hall building has this big multipurpose room with a stage, there is a big lawn outside, the downtown streets have wide sidewalks, and across one street is another building that rents itself out which is where they put the Christmas community market. That makes it easy to host community events, with enough room for people to shop, eat, or just enjoy the space. It's funny, but I feel welcome there, even though I know exactly nobody in that town and don't fit well with the mainstream. They're going out of their way to put out the mat in ways that most places just don't. My bet is they've got an emotional genius there.

... yes, I'm taking notes.

[barbaratp]

É disso que precisamos, de estender a mão de forma humanizada. Trabalhar faz bem, dá um propósito e o salário uma condição melhor para aqueles que por vezes não tem nem o que comer ou onde viver. Adorei essa iniciativa, por mais lugares fazendo o mesmo u.u

[enchanted_jae]

I agree!

i like it!

[musings1931]

Good news we can use! I think that's a great idea.

[gatheringrivers]

What we really need are work centers where anyone can go ant get paid for doing the long list of stuff that needs done, which a choice what tasks to take.

Depending on the city, they may be known as "day labor centers" or something similar. There used to be one at my end, but it's been a long time since I've needed to consider that as a paycheck option.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Day labor is a bit different, and in some places, reviled or even banned. It's often a struggle for the odd-jobbers to create a place where they can gather, which is a shame because we need them.

What I'm thinking of is a type of social safety net -- a place where people can go that always has work available, and they don't have to compete for it.