Originally published 2020-03-07.
Yes: in Austin, Texas, a nonprofit called The Other Ones Foundation (often shortened to OOF or TOOF) has paid people experiencing homelessness $15 an hour to clear litter and invasive plants from city parks and public land. Its programme, Workforce First, began with a city contract in 2018. Crew members are picked up and driven to the work site, given lunch, paid in cash at the end of the day, and offered voluntary case management to help them move towards steady jobs and housing.
The idea is simple and practical. Many people who are homeless want to work but are shut out of ordinary jobs, and a low-barrier job can be a first step back. Here is how the programme works, what it achieved in its early years, and what it can and cannot fix.
Why ordinary jobs are hard to get without a home
On a single night in 2018, about 553,000 people in the United States were counted as homeless, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report. Many of them are working or looking for work, but the obstacles stack up quickly.
Job applications usually ask for a permanent address and a phone number. Interviews and shifts require clean clothes, a shower and reliable transport. Paychecks often arrive two weeks after the work is done, which is a long wait when you need food tonight. Missing any one of these can lock a person out, and the longer someone is unemployed, the harder it becomes to get back in.
How Workforce First works
The Other Ones Foundation was formed in 2017, led by its executive director, Chris Baker, with the aim of tackling homelessness by building community. Workforce First, run in partnership with the city's parks department, removes the usual barriers one by one:
- No address needed. A permanent address is not a condition of joining a crew.
- Transport included. Before the pandemic, a shuttle picked crew members up and took them to work sites and the day shelter.
- Same-day pay. Workers earn $15 an hour and are paid in cash at the end of each shift.
- Lunch provided. Nobody has to work on an empty stomach.
- Optional support. Free, voluntary case management aims to help people move on to permanent jobs and housing.
A Workforce First crew in yellow rain gear, holding the loppers and tools used to clear brush and invasive plants. Photo: The Other Ones Foundation.
Alongside the work programme, the foundation has run a day shelter where clients can shower, eat, do laundry, get online and rest during the day. Early coverage described this space as The Golden Road; later reports placed the day shelter behind Oak Hill United Methodist Church on U.S. Highway 290 West.
Clients relaxing in the foundation's day space, with sofas, a television and a resident dog. Photo: The Other Ones Foundation.
Early results
In its first year, the foundation reported paying out more than $100,000 in earned income to people experiencing homelessness and poverty, and said 24 participants had moved into stable housing. Baker told Upworthy that far more people wanted to work than the crews could take on.
Staff and clients working through paperwork on laptops, the kind of case-management help offered alongside the paid shifts. Photo: The Other Ones Foundation.
The City of Austin expanded its support. The first contract, in October 2018, was worth $180,000 for litter clearing. In October 2019 the council approved a $720,000 contract that added park jobs such as removing invasive species. Some early reports described the new figure as more than seven times the pilot budget; going by the contract amounts reported by Reporting Texas, it was about four times larger. Council Member Leslie Pool called the programme "transformational."
A pile of full litter bags from a single cleanup. Photo: The Other Ones Foundation.
A crew member in a hi-vis vest beside a dumped newspaper vending box, one of the bulkier items crews haul away. Photo: The Other Ones Foundation.
By March 2020, Workforce First had cleared nearly 300,000 pounds of trash and paid more than $250,000 in wages. Four crews were employing around 30 people a day, with roughly 200 more on a waiting list.
What changed during the pandemic
When Austin closed down in early April 2020, the foundation stopped its shuttle and cut back to a single crew working three days a week. The day shelter was limited to ten people at a time. To keep people clean and safe, it launched Box of Rain, a mobile hygiene service with showers, toilets and first-aid supplies, which set up at six locations six days a week.
By September 2020, Workforce First had paid more than $300,000 in wages since it began. The foundation also took on the running of a state-sanctioned encampment on U.S. 183, which residents voted to name Camp Esperanza, and which elected a five-person leadership council to set rules and settle disputes.
What paid cleanup work can and cannot do
It is worth being clear about the limits. A few days of park work does not end homelessness, and the housing figures above count people who took part in the programme, not people whom the programme alone housed. Housing costs, health problems and access to services all play a part.
What low-barrier work does well is offer income, routine and dignity right away, and a relationship with staff who can help with the next step. Crew supervisor Eddie Buls, who had been in and out of homelessness for about 20 years before joining, put it plainly: "Everyone needs a little cash at least." Another staff member, Jamie Crowley, joined while he was homeless and later moved into a full-time job and his own apartment.
Programmes like it in other cities
Austin's model resembles Albuquerque's "There's a Better Way" van, which since 2015 has driven panhandlers to paid day jobs, and A Better Way Detroit, a church-backed cleanup programme. For cities, the appeal is easy to see: public spaces get cleaner, and money that might be spent on enforcement goes into wages instead. For participants, the most important feature is the one that is easiest to overlook: a job that will take them as they are, today.
Sources: Reporting Texas, 2020: Amid downsizing, foundation finds new ways to serve homeless community; Austin ECHO, September 2020: The Other Ones Foundation; Upworthy: Austin's Other Ones Foundation; HUD Exchange: Annual Homeless Assessment Reports. Photos: The Other Ones Foundation.
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