In Onondaga County, there are reported 425 single adults in homeless shelters. That’s 425 too many. The new Syracuse Hire Ground initiative could soon help lower that number.

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon recently announced the initiative to help homeless individuals get off the streets. McMahon has said he wants to stop criminalizing homelessness.

The Hire Ground initiative will offer panhandlers $50 for a day of work. Jobs in the program range from cleaning up streets to picking up trash in community parks. This initiative not only helps homeless people, but also helps keep our city clean.

This is a win for everyone who lives in the city of Syracuse. Not just the more than 400 single adults in homeless shelters, as Syracuse.com reported.

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Professor Nicholas Blomley, an expert on legal relations of marginalized and oppressed people at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, agreed. Bloomley said that this program could work, as long as the people hired are not coerced into participation.

Similar employment programs have been successful in cities such as San Diego and Fort Worth. Syracuse’s pilot program will be run by John Tumino of In My Father’s Kitchen — a nonprofit homeless shelter which has already helped more than 100 homeless people. For nearly eight years, Tumino has fed and helped homeless people.

Tumino could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Hire Ground initiative is a smart plan for the city, could spur economic development and warrants the support of community members who care about all people, here.

Patrick Penfield is a sophomore accounting major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at fpen2021@syr.edu.

LEARN MORE:

• Podcast: You Op To Know | Business columnist discusses Syracuse’s Hire Ground homeless work initiative
• Video: You Op To Know | Business columnist discusses Syracuse’s Hire Ground homeless work initiative
  

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Published on February 20, 2019 at 10:26 pm