Many of us will never know what it’s like to be homeless and it’s hard to imagine lacking both reliable access to shelter as well as the means to find work since you don’t have an address.

If you think back to your last job application, you no doubt needed all sorts of ID, banking information, and a residence just to apply. Without those, it’s hard to find work that pays well enough to help a person get back on their feet. And to top it off, one usually needs quite a large security deposit to find housing. These are just some of the reasons it’s so difficult for homeless men and women to recover and reclaim their lives.

But in Little Rock, Arkansas, the local government is trying out a new program that gives their homeless population not only a way to earn money for an honest day’s work, but access to social services that help them reintegrate and recover from the trauma of living on the streets.

The project – called “Bridge to Work” – began as a pilot program in April of 2019 and was designed to give the homeless a chance to work with dignity while beautifying the city at the same time.

Bridge to Work hires homeless men and women to pick up trash from roadways and pays them a fair wage of $9.25/hr for their efforts. But it’s not full-time work, it’s simply an opportunity to earn money for basic needs.

It’s not a job most people are willing to do, but it’s honest work for honest pay, even if it’s only offered for a couple of hours a day.

Dozens of men and women took part in the pilot program, which ran for six months, including Mario Sexton, who came to Little Rock without any ID and struggled to find work. Finding no other options than panhandling, he’s grateful for the Bridge to Work program for giving him the opportunity to earn his money with his labor.

“As a man, a young man, you feel a little bit better about yourself if you can work and get some money,” he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The Bridge to Work program is funded by the city and administered by the local Canvas Community Church. Rev. Paul Atkins – who coordinates the program – said that it’s not a simple fix, but that he sees the benefits the program provides.

The program is limited in scope, so daily work is not a given. But those who want to participate are invited to come to the church for the first-come-first-served opportunity. The maximum income for the day is $37.

That means the crew is never the same on any given day. As of mid-August 2019, 348 people had participated in Bridge to Work at least once.

By September, there were 450 participants, and that made it easier to justify to the city for continued funding.

The program currently has enough funding to pay 8 workers a day. Some days more people show up than are needed and some must be turned away, but other days they struggle to fill the vacancies. In those cases, the church takes its van to the homeless and presents them with the opportunity.

When Rev. Atkins was interviewed in August by the local news, he said about 27% of people they asked accepted the invitation. But now that the program is more well-known, those numbers are likely to go up.

In the 6-month trial phase, the city’s homeless beautified 130 sites in the city and gathered around 2,000 bags of trash from its roadways.

After the success of the program, other cities and towns in Arkansas started trialing their own versions of the program. It’s a win-win for those who can organize it properly.

Of course, money isn’t enough to help most homeless people rebuild their lives. That’s why some of the funding goes towards helping homeless men and women find long-term or more reliable employment as well as health insurance, mental health treatment, and assistance in ordering identification and other vital documents they might need to secure housing.

But Rev. Atkins is making it clear that the problem is still too large to be solved by one program alone. While 13 people in the program had found full-time work by September, that’s fewer than he’d like.

Atkins said this helps illustrate just how hard it is to reenter the system and successfully stay in it after being homeless.

He says the key to success is interagency cooperation and more reliable support to help people reenter society and not relapse into habits that might have put them on the streets in the first place (though homeless is certainly not always caused by habits).

As of September 2019, Little Rock had spent about $80,000 on the initiative and was seeking the city council’s approval for more funding.

Mayor Frank Scott Jr. deemed the initial 6-month trial a success and the Little Rock City Council unanimously voted to extend the project until September 2020.

Be sure to scroll down below to learn more about Bridge to Work.

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Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, KATV News, THV-11 News