SIERRA VISTA — A program that gives the homeless a chance to work and get paid in cash took off on Wednesday morning as four individuals armed with gloves, garbage bags and other tools attacked a littered field just west of Veterans Memorial Park.
With a large city dumpster as their backdrop, the four men labored in the cold, picking up loads of trash — including discarded needles — strewn across a small swath of desert just off Fry Boulevard and Moorman Avenue.
The work program, called Better Work, is an offshoot of Better Bucks of Sierra Vista. Better Bucks provides homeless and needy individuals and families with vouchers for essential items, rather than give them money that could be used to buy drugs or alcohol. The Better Bucks vouchers come in booklets of five, each one for $1. The public may purchase the voucher booklets for $6. The extra dollar goes toward printing the booklets and other administrative costs. Several local businesses accept Better Bucks and are later reimbursed by the Better Bucks of Sierra Vista board.
The Better Work program will offer the homeless a chance to work in a day-labor style capacity that could lead to a full-time or part-time job, said Sierra Vista Police spokesman Cpl. Scott Borgstadt, a member of the Better Bucks board.
Workers are paid $14 an hour to clean up public lands within the city, either state or municipal parcels, Borgstadt said. The money to pay the laborers comes from a $52,000 grant from the Arizona Department of Housing. Municipalities interested in starting a work program for their homeless populations had to apply for the money. The city will match the grant amount for a three-year stint that will pay the homeless their daily salaries as well as take care of other services.
For now, the work opportunities will be twice a month, from 8 a.m. to noon, Borgstadt said, “while a few things are tweaked.” Borgstadt said he hopes that will transition into once a week, and maybe twice a week.
Many cities across the United States have day-labor programs for the homeless that pay each individual in cash at the end of the workday.
This is how the program will work in Sierra Vista: The person must register with the Homeless Management Information System. The system keeps track of homeless people and helps direct them to the services they need. Many of the agencies that will be involved in Better Work will help anyone who is interested in the day-labor program register with HMIS, Borgstadt said.
The work will mostly involve landscaping and sprucing up public lands within Sierra Vista, Borgstadt said.
Participants will be picked up at Good Neighbor Alliance and dropped off there at the end of the day. Aside from collecting their pay there, workers will be able to take a shower and get a meal, Borgstadt said.
The city has agreed to provide a supervisor for the worksites, a van to pick up workers and a driver who is a city employee. Sierra Vista also will contribute work materials such as gloves, garbage bags and the tools needed for landscaping and cleanups, Borgstadt said.
Individuals who show up for work must be sober and unarmed. There will also be a limit to how much each person can earn, said Eva Dickerson, a Better Bucks board member, but that could likely lead to another job. That limit is $599.99.
Initially the work program was only for the homeless, Borgstadt said, but that was modified after one of the men who signed up to work Wednesday, Jason Mullins, informed Borgstadt beforehand that he had just gotten an apartment with the help of Good Neighbor Alliance.
After speaking with Good Neighbor Alliance officials and learning that getting an apartment does not necessarily mean that support from that agency stops for a client — it provides “wrap-around” services for about 60 days to make sure the person is on his or her feet — Borgstadt mentioned Mullins’ situation to the Better Bucks board and the homelessness requirement was removed.
“We agreed that were going to allow people who get housed to work in the Better Work program during the 60-day wrap-around program from GNA so they have a better chance at success,” Borgstadt said.
As he took a short break from picking up debris Wednesday morning, Mullins said he’s grateful that happened.
“I need the extra money, it’s a fresh new start,” he said. “I’m actually getting housing and getting back on my feet again. It feels good to be cleaned up.”
Mullins, 44, said he heard about Better Work via Good Neighbor Alliance.
He said the field he was helping to clean up is the one he lived in for almost four years.
“I was actually homeless in these fields,” Mullins said. “I ended up getting into a little trouble. I was incarcerated for almost a year. When I was released I had to have an address and Good Neighbor Alliance blessed me with a place and a bed there.
“Ever since then, I’ve been taking steps forward instead of backwards.”
Borgstadt, who checks on the city’s homeless camps weekly, said Mullins is an emerging success story.
“I would run into Jason on a regular basis,” Borgstadt said. “I always tried to steer him into services, particularly Good Neighbor Alliance. He got incarcerated and I think it was a reality check and he started to change his life.”
Anthony Gasper also heard about Better Work from Good Neighbor Alliance after landing here about a week ago from Durango, Colorado.
“I headed to Good Neighbor Alliance when I got here and they told me about the work program and I said, ‘I’m on it,’ “ the 38-year-old Gasper said. “It’s a cycle when you get out here and you start with nothing. It’s hard to get on your feet. But when you find a place that can help you get that momentum, those few steps, it’s really nice. I’m really appreciative.”
The next workdays are scheduled for Feb. 8 and Feb. 22 and March 8 and March 22.