All posts by Emma

Keeping Our Cities Clean and Making Money

Homelessness, News link, Related topics, Solutions to Poverty

A complaint I hear a lot when people talk about homelessness is how dirty the streets are due to homeless people throwing their waste everywhere. With no personal garbage and recycling bins, people who are homeless have to rely on city garbage cans which can be few and far between. The city of Fort Worth in Texas is trying to combat this problem. Their program called Clean Slate offers paying jobs to homeless people staying at one of their local shelters. The workers earn $10 an hour and receive benefits and vacation time, all while collecting trash around homeless encampments. City-funded, the goal of this program is to employ homeless people and eventually get them employed in stable, long-term positions, even though they are allowed to work for the program as long as they like.

Other cities have decided to replicate this program and I think there’s a large benefit to it. While it is subjecting homeless people to “do the dirty work” and city funding could be going to improve sanitation services, I think that it’s a step in the right direction. Helping these people who are down on their luck by offering a low-wage job adds to a resume and gives work experience and a reference for when they are ready to move on to other work.

The article says that L.A.’s city council signed off to replicate this program in November though I couldn’t find any follow up information on if the city is moving to actually create this program.

Ballor, C. (2018, January 27). Fort Worth pays homeless to help clean up city’s streets. Dallas News. Retrieved January 28, 2018, from https://www.dallasnews.com/news/fort-worth/2018/01/27/fort-worth-pays-homeless-help-clean-citys-streets

L.A. considers hiring homeless people to clean up litter on the streets. (2017, November 1). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 28, 2018, from http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-homeless-trash-20171101-story.html

Do we profit off of poverty?

Uncategorized

I often question my role in social services and wonder if my wanting to do good and help others actually inhibits those disadvantaged from getting ahead. After reading The Positive Functions of Poverty, these questions reentered my mind but met resistance. Gans tells us that poverty has to exist, otherwise, no one would do the “dirty work” that needs to be completed. He also tells us that “poverty creates jobs for a number of occupations and professions which serve the poor…”. With thirteen other reasons, he playfully explains that poverty is necessary for our society.

The resistance that met these fifteen positive functions of poverty was one of curiosity. Am I profiting off of poverty by wanting to become a social worker? Does my love for tutoring the incarcerated boys that I see weekly make me intrinsically feel better about myself? My initial reactions were defensive and guilty, which only reminded me to check myself and question why I was feeling that way. After reflecting on my intentions of working in social services, I reminded myself that I agree with Gans, in a sense. People will always fall to the bottom of a hierarchy or social status, and there will always be people who come along to do the dirty work. As for the more fortunate, it is up to them to live their lives, so long as they are not intentionally benefitting from poverty. The worker who only does their job because it makes themselves feel better about their own self does not deserve their spot in social service. The worker who dedicates their life to helping others succeed while fully understanding the inequalities society does deserve their spot in social service. It all comes down to empathy and understanding.