Wheels of Change

Now that the Temporary Bridge Shelters are in place, giving a secure place to sleep and store belongings to hundreds of homeless individuals in downtown San Diego, various private individuals and non-profits are partnering with operating organizations like Alpha Project for the Homeless to create opportunities for them to gain work experience, build self-esteem and earn cash.

Two days a week, supervisor K.B. Allen takes eight volunteers from the shelter and directed them around local streets. They collected bags of fast food wrappers, clothing, cups, cigarette butts, plastic bags, beverage containers, paper, and used needles.

After gathering again at designated street corners and bundling the garbage bags, Allen sent messages to the Downtown Partnership as to the location of the accumulated trash and the partnership came to collect and dispose of it all.

Residents say it gives them some self-esteem to be working, to be doing something good, and to her the words of praise from passersby in the area where they are cleaning. "We need for people to see that it's not always homeless people creating the mess downtown. We're here to clean it up," one worker said as she cornered a gum wrapper in a stream of water on the Commercial Avenue.

At the end of a day, Allen says, the crew will have collected close to 200 pounds of trash. But the main thing, he emphasizes, is to get the drug paraphernalia off the streets where children walk to school. He says he sees police hassling homeless who are sleeping or sitting on the sidewalk, but they never stop to deal with the drug addicts openly shooting up in public. Hopefully that will change, he says. "For now, it's our job to clean up downtown."

One resident, Laura Davis, said it helps build self-esteem and puts money in her pocket, which gives her a chance to turn around and give some money to her teenage daughter. It also helps her save up to pay for the live scan fingerprinting required for her to get her substitute teaching credential renewed. "It's money that I've earned, so it makes me feel good. I'm out here on my own, I don't have any other income, no social security, no general relief or disability," she says. "It allows me to save for things that are important for me like my substitute teaching credential, which is $71. I'm halfway there!" she says, "Raise the roof!"