LA is considering hiring homeless people to clean trash. Is this a good idea in your opinion?

I think whatever can be done to reduce that number is great. some might be very hard workers and outstanding employees, and also it gets them off the street finally and into a normal situation LA has too many now. Id say offer a rehab program for their substance abuse and such and clean them up with a hair cut, a shave, and some better close to wear. and let them demonstrate how they do a great job. They should also try this in san diego were theres a high volume of them too. chris

Cons object to homeless people working

new news is really old news, this method of using the homeless and destitute was used decades ago but met with opposition when there were actual hired employees to clean the streets and they complained the 'bums' were taking their jobs, so the cities abandoned using free help

but the point is the streets need to be cleaned up and people who don't have jobs need to do something for the help they get

We have a programme like that in NYC. It is a charity entirely funded by local businesses. The organisation takes long term unemployed people. The idea is to give them stability and structure in their lives. They are housed, transported to work and paid a small wage. In return they sweep the streets and empty the bins. It has been massively successful with 80% of the people graduating into normal jobs within two years. The streets are clean and the sweepers are so proud of what they have achieved.

Unfortunately the champagne socialists are lobbying for them to be subject to minimum wage laws which would entirely close this down.

Clean Trash? How? How on Earth do you CLEAN Trash? Is that a new Liberal occupation field? " I clean the Baby Poop out of Used Pampers for a living." Is that what LA means?

LA should hire worthless christian pastors who waste their time. Christian pastors preach slavery, racism and intolerance. They would do a better job if they cleaned trash.

Depends on the factors rarely mentioned in the pop-media...

You know...like what kind of city benefits they will earn and who will pay for them......what kind of payoff will be made to the city workers' unions to allow such a thing....and so on..

Yes, that's a hand-up as cons say.

Might be the only job they can qualify for, too.

~Aizen

No.They are taking themselves to the dump?

Of course. It gives some homeless people a job and money. Plus it cleans up the city. It's a win win. More American cities should do this!