The snow is melting here and trash that had been covered in ice and snow for months is now appearing all around city streets. Many of the residents are renters and do not clean up the mess even if it is front of their home. It looks terrible.
A relative of mine lives in the city not too far from a subsidized housing facility near a Dollar store and 7-Eleven. There are always a few beggars (they are not homeless so I will stick with the term “beggar”) hanging out in front of those stores asking customers for money, intimidating some. The store managers chase them away but they soon return.
Seeing all the trash on the ground and the beggars standing around I got to thinking. Why not hire them to pick it up?
I would be willing to pay minimum wage, cash from my pocket, off the books, for one or two of them to collect trash and put it in clear trash bags that I would supply along with gloves.
I would ask them to go up one side of the street and down the other and when they returned with the bags l would give them money. (I might give 20% up front and 80% upon completion.)
I’d start with one hour and see if the idea worked. If that person did a good job I’d pay for them to do it on a couple of more streets on another day. If that worked well I might hire them to plant grass seed that I’d supply or do other projects that would benefit the neighborhood.

Do you see problems with this? How can/will this backfire on me?

Topics: work, homelessness, employment, welfare, minimum wage, wages