It’s tough to find work if you’re homeless.

Think about all the things you need to submit in order to get a job – ID, an address, banking information. Most homeless men and women don’t have any of those things. That makes it tough for them to get back on their feet.

Instead of dooming them to a life of poverty, one city is helping them work with dignity.

Little Rock, Arkansas started a pilot program to help its homeless population AND combat littering in April 2019. It’s called “Bridge to Work.”

Bridge to Work hires homeless men and women to pick up trash from roadways and pays them a fair wage of $9.25/hr.

It’s not a job most people are clamoring to do, but it’s honest work for honest pay. And since the goal is to get people back on track, it includes social services for workers too.

The program is working for dozens of Little Rock residents, including Mario Sexton, who came to the city without any ID. He was forced to try panhandling just so he could eat but jumped at the opportunity to join Bridge to Work as soon as he heard about it.

“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 initiative is run by the Canvas Community Church. Coordinator Rev. Paul Atkins said the program is starting to bear fruit.

The work is not a given. But those who want the opportunity can come to the church for transportation to the site and the chance to earn $37 a day.

The crew is never the same from day to day. But as of mid-August 2019, 348 people had participated.

By September it was up to 450 participants, which made it easier to justify to the city, which funds the work.

The program has enough money to pay 8 workers a day. Some days more people than are needed show up and some must be turned away and other days the van has to drive around and ask for volunteers.

When Rev. Atkins was interviewed in August, he said about 27% of people they asked accepted their invitations. (Of course, people driving around in a van and offering you things might seem pretty shady, so now that the program is well-known, it may have more luck.)

The program’s 6-month trial phase was a success as the city’s homeless cleaned up 130 sites and gathered around 2,000 bags of trash off its streets.

Other cities in Arkansas are now starting pilot programs to see if they can replicate the success.

Of course, money isn’t enough to help most homeless people rebuild their lives, so the program also puts them in touch with organizations that can help them find jobs and health insurance, receive mental health treatment, and apply for everything from bus passes to housing.

It also helps them navigate the paperwork necessary to get new copies of their identity documents such as birth certificates and social security cards so they can apply for jobs and rent apartments.

But Rev. Atkins is making it clear that the problem is still a vexing one. Thirteen people in the program had found full-time work by September, but that’s a much lower number than he’d like to see. He said this demonstrates just how hard it is to reenter the system and successfully stay in it.

Atkins says the key to helping make this happen is interagency cooperation and more reliable support to see people through that reentry period.

As of September, Little Rock had spent about $80,000 on the initiative and needed to city council’s approval to keep it funded.

Soon after, 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