Panhandlers at the corner of Milwaukee and Evergreen Street View Full Caption DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser

CHICAGO — The city announced a new program Tuesday that will offer up to 100 panhandlers the opportunity to earn money and shelter in exchange for helping clean up vacant lots, abandoned properties and roadside areas.

The three-month pilot program, called "A Day For Change," will also offer wraparound services for those who take part, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Lisa Morrison Butler said in a media release.

“This pilot will provide an opportunity for homeless residents to earn a day of pay for temporary employment, and the chance they need to gain steady housing and employment that will allow them get their lives back," Emanuel said.

The program will begin this month, though an exact date was not announced. It comes on the heels of the city's Chronic Homelessness pilot program, which aimed to house 75 homeless people living under the Lake Shore Drive viaducts in Uptown, commonly referred to as Uptown's Tent City.

“We as a City cannot thrive until each and every one of our residents can thrive, which is why we are committed to addressing homelessness in a way that will help our most vulnerable residents get the care they need to become housed once again,” Emanuel said.

Participants can earn $55 for the day — $11 an hour — for their labor, which would include maintaining vacant lots and abandoned properties and trash collection near expressways, the release said.

In total, those who take part can earn up to $600 and will receive meals, behavioral health services, job preparedness training, hygiene care and interim housing. Participants will be paid in cash because many do not have official identification, the release said. Each participant would receive housing and pay for no more than two weeks.

“This program is a creative way to engage this hard-to-reach population. Similar to the Chronic Homelessness Pilot, we will take the lessons learned in A Day for Change and apply them more broadly to help other residents experiencing homelessness due to a lack of income," Butler said.

“We are working to create a system where cases of homelessness are rare, brief, and non-recurring.”

The new program will be funded by the Airbnb Tax, a four-percent surcharge aimed at regulating home-sharing services. Since being instituted in July, the City has earned $500,000 to reinvest in programs aimed at helping the homeless, the release said.

A Safe Haven, a DFSS delegate agency, will dispatch work vans to areas with large concentrations of panhandlers and offer "a fair wage for a set amount of work," the release said.

The program “promises to be a powerful first step that will allow all public and private stakeholders to engage in creating access to housing and employment opportunities for one of Chicago’s most underserved populations," said Neli Vazquez Rowland, president and co-founder of A Safe Haven Foundation.

“A Day for Change marks an incredible opportunity to rethink our approach and provide individuals in crisis access to comprehensively rebuild and transform their lives,” Rowland said.

During the program, a case manager will work with participants to develop an action plan, which could include access to services leading to full-time employment, permanent housing or whatever participants deem a priority in their lives, a spokeswoman for DFSS said.

While the pilot offers a temporary job, "we hope that the services accepted would be for the longer haul," the spokeswoman said.

The program is modeled after the There's A Better Way program, which gave out 932 jobs clearing about 70,000 pounds of litter from 196 city blocks in Albuquerque, N.M. The jobs pay $9 an hour and lunch is provided for participants, according to The Washington Post.

Chicago's Chronic Homelessness pilot program began at end of April and set a preliminary goal of housing participants in 60-90 days. While the program failed to meet its original goal after only 18 people were housed during that time period, Butler — who also led that effort — vowed the program would not end until all participants were housed.

While some housing advocates called the program "a sick joke," Butler, who blamed the slow process on a lack of funding and housing options where participants wanted to live, has continued her efforts and has now housed 40 people through the program, 32 in bridge housing and eight in permanent housing. The goal is to house the remaining participants by the end of November.

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