Homeless shelters = a source of hired labor?

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Considering that homelessness is a result of joblessness more often than not, why don't homeless shelters attempt to hire out their residents?

Any homeless shelter should have an interview process and some sort of agent for helping those down-on-their-luck find steady, honest work. The question is, why don't they?

That's an interesting idea you have! It seems like it would be a great way to generate funds for a shelter that could allow it to do even more to help people get back on their feet. My guess is that the shelters simply don't have the funds or manpower to get something like that started, but there could be a lot of other practical issues. Insurance, appropriate screening of applicants for mental health/drug problems, etc.

Still, it seems like a motivated person with entrepreneurial skills would have a shot at making something like that workable. Many construction companies and private citizens doing big home improvement projects hire illegal immigrants as day laborers because they work so cheaply and without a contract. It seems reasonable to me that they would be glad to pay a little more to hire workers legally and support a good cause at the same time.

Your proposals has a few flaws.

1. Most any job that could get a person out of the homeless shelter indefinitely wants someone who has a fixed address (rents or owns). Homeless shelter imposes a rather negative image, and most people there (certainly before the recent recession/depression) was not "professional" material that would command a decent paycheck.

See "The Pursuit of Happyness" which was based on a true story. Guy was homeless and never told anyone he was interning with about his situation but did everything he could to present the image the employer wanted to see.

2. Homeless shelters (and other like places) are places where people needing "day laborers" can find cheap workers.

3. Many people at homeless shelters are unreliable workers (hence the stigma for professionals who are "down and out" and wind up there).

In the U.S. at least, there isn't a whole lot of demand for completely unskilled, short term labor.

The main homeless shelter in the Boston area does help their residents to find jobs.

My uncle supervises a homeless shelter east of the bay area; from the stories he has told, I woud far rather hire an illegal alien off the street than one of his residents. I think I'd be safer.

Most illegal immigrants are here to work and earn some money. Many of the people in the shelters are drunks or other kinds of addicts. You are right to hire to the illegal immigrant. He wont bargain too hard about the wages and he will do a good job just to stay on your good side.

ruveyn

QFT

Mistaken assumption #1. I cannot speak for all cities, but in Canadian cities, the leading factors in homelessness are addiction and mental illness. Provincial cuts to residential mental health care, lack of beds in addiction treatment centres, lack of support for people emerging from addition, and barriers to access to social services have all made significant contributions to homelessness. I imagine that there are similar factors at play in many American cities.



Mistaken assumption #2. Homeless shelters are in no position to hire anyone out. Taking a work assignment is not (and to my mind, should not be) a pre-condition to shelter. The whole point of shelters is to provide a safe environment for those who have no where else to go.



Mistaken assumption #3. Many shelters do, in fact, have resources available for those who want help--but the most pressing demand is not for work, but for detox.

This is not the Great Depression, where millions of capable people were thrown out of work and had to rely on soup kitchens and shelters for survival. In the USA and Canada today, economic homelessness is largely transient.

becuase most homeless shelters are runned by churches. wich opperate on a measly budget

Well sure, if you want some guy with poo in his pants fighting a ghost working for you.

c'mon now, that isn't very nice. i have been homeless before, and i've never had poo in my pants nor have i ever fought ghosts.

Sorry.

Sorry.

forgiven
i can understand how some might get the olfactory impression that some homeless types might stink due to the lack of access to bathing facilities. i am sure there were times that i didn't have the finest of aromas either. i dread that it ever happens to me again.
to those who say "let 'em pick fruit and produce" - i did that and i was never fast or efficient enough to make much in the way of useful duckies. i was and am just too clumsy and slow. this modern world has gotten rid of just about all the non-bigbrained jobs for simple folk like me and that man hiding behind the tree. i believe if the social darwinists had their way, folk like me would just be left to starve, IOW they wouldn't even have the common decency to bother expending a merciful bullet on me and my ilk. they wouldn't piss on me if i were on fire.

Interesting to see the attitudes and stigmas attached to being homeless and jobless in America. /:

Sad but true. The upcoming generation is possessed of a distinct lack of empathy.


I was talking to this kid I work with, he’s really smart, a religious fundie and more than a bit of a greed-head…

I mentioned that, no matter how tight my money was, I made a point of giving money to the local homeless shelter every month. He replied that he would never give money to a charity but he might help someone on an individual level (if the opportunity ever presented itself ) because it would make him feel good.

I told him the point wasn’t to make yourself feel good but to help a fellow human in need. He seemed genuinely puzzled by this…

…very sad and depressing.