SAN DIEGO (WSVN) — A program in southern California has been established to pay homeless people $11.50 an hour to pick up trash around San Diego.
According to Fox 5, participants will be picked up by van twice a week and driven to specific sites where they will pick up trash, pull weeds and clear brush for five hours.
Staff members will also help connect program participants to services, such as housing resources.
The city said the program comes as part of the Alpha Project’s “Wheels of Change” program.
“This is all about creating more opportunities for homeless individuals to lift themselves out of extreme poverty,” San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer told Fox 5. “’Wheels for Change’ will help restore dignity by allowing people to earn a paycheck and begin to get back on their feet.
The first six months of the program have been funded by a private anonymous donor.
Similar programs exist in Albuquerque, Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Lexington, Kentucky.
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