Syracuse, N.Y. -- People who regularly stand on the city’s street corners asking for spare change will soon have the option to work for $50 a day.

A new city-county program, run by John Tumino of In My Father’s Kitchen, will offer people the opportunity to work in a day labor program starting May 1.

Tumino was awarded the contract for the Hire Ground program. Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon and Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh announced the award together today. The idea grew out of a proposal by McMahon to outlaw aggressive panhandling. Instead, he and Walsh had conversation with each other and with homeless services providers, including Tumino, about finding other options.

“It will help people get work through dignity,” McMahon said. He went out last week to observe the Point in Time Count of the city and county homeless, which found 13 people sleeping outside in deadly cold temperatures. “It’s just really God’s work,” McMahon said of Tumino and the others who help the region’s homeless.

Tumino has been running a homeless help outreach program with is wife, Leigh-Ann, for eight years. They’ve helped more than 100 people come in off the streets and into housing, working with other agencies. His proposal to run the day labor program was written by Melissa Marrone, the former director of the Housing and Homeless Coalition of Central New York,

The day labor program is the next logical step to helping the homeless, Tumino said.

“These people need to work,” Tumino said. “We’re going to give them an opportunity, an alternative to panhandling. Will we end it? I don’t know.”

Tumino will purchase a van and hire a driver and a caseworker. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the driver and the caseworker will pick up eight people who want to work at different stops throughout the city. The jobs all will be at the same job site; the van driver and case worker will work alongside the participants. At the end of the day, which will be five hours of work plus a provided lunch, the workers will receive a $50 stipend.

The idea, Tumino said, is to provide people who are not yet employable in the traditional job market with a stepping stone. The day labor set-up will give them confidence, work experience and access to services.

Many of the people Tumino imagines will be interested struggle with untreated mental illness and substance abuse problems. The hope is to get them hooked up with help for those issues, too.

“The problem is everyone’s problem,” Tumino said.

The program’s budget is $200,000. The county is providing $180,000 and Tumino had to come up with $20,000. Richard Lester, who owns Ziebart and is on Tumino’s board, donated money, as did Roger Burdick, Tumino said.

Tumino and his wife went to Albuquerque, N.M., to see how a day labor program for panhandlers there worked and modeled their proposal after it. That program has had significant success, Tumino said

In Syracuse, Onondaga County will fund the program but it will be overseen by Sue McMahon of the city’s Emergency Solutions Grant office. (McMahon, the county executive’s mother, said she’s been championing the day labor idea since she heard about it.)

At the day labor announcement, the mayor talked about when he rode around the city with Tumino and spoke with the homeless and panhandlers.

“I remember pulling up in this parking lot and speaking with someone under the bridge,” Walsh said, standing in the lobby of Ziebart. The car detailing and weatherproofing shop is on Hiawatha Boulevard near the overpass where homeless people often camp and panhandle.

Today, after the announcement, a man stood next to the bridge, holding a sign asking for money.

Marnie Eisenstadt is an enterprise reporter who writes about people, life and culture in Central New York. Have an idea or question? Contact her anytime: email | twitter | Facebook | 315-470-2246