About a dozen homeless people who had been staying at one of the city’s large tented shelters were back on the street Monday morning, but for a good reason.

The Alpha Project, which runs the shelter at 16th Street and Newton Avenue, hired some of its clients for a new work program that will help clean up downtown while also helping the homeless get back on their feet.

“This is the first time I’ve worked in a while,” said Dawn Caiazzo, who wore a bright orange work vest and black rubber gloves as she picked up trash on Island Avenue near 16th Street. “It feels good.”

Alpha Project CEO Bob McElroy said the crew cleaned up about 12 blocks on their first four-hour shift Monday.


“I’m really proud of them,” he said.

McElroy said the new Wheels of Change work program was funded with a $70,000 donation from Dr. Carolyn Barber, an emergency room physician at UC San Diego School of Medicine. The money was enough to buy a van and pay workers $11.50 an hour for the next six months.

The program is based on the Albuquerque, New Mexico program called There’s a Better Way. In that program, two vans pick up about 20 homeless people and bring them to work sites daily.

Similar programs exist in more than a dozen other cities, including Austin, Chicago, Denver, Lexington, Portland and Seattle.


The concept isn’t new to San Diego. McElroy has been finding work for homeless people for the past 32 years through Alpha Project’s Take Back the Streets program, which employs 30 to 50 people a day in brush abatement, recycling and other jobs.

When offered an opportunity to bring the Albuquerque program to San Diego, McElroy admits he was a bit reluctant.

“We’re not going to pick up eight or 10 random homeless people and give them money that is going to be spent on drugs and alcohol,” he said. “But it’s a perfect fit for the shelter.”

McElroy said case workers at the shelter will help people in the cleaning crews use their pay productively.

About 300 people stay in the Alpha Project’s tented shelter, which is known as bridge housing because it is intended to be a temporary stay for people receiving help in finding housing, employment and assistance in overcoming issues related to their homelessness.


The crews will be back on the street on Thursday, and McElroy said the program soon will be expanded to three days a week.

Edwin Fisk, who has been homeless about six months and is staying at the Alpha Project shelter, was among the people in Monday’s crew.

“It’s better than sitting in a tent all day,” he said. “It gives us something to do, you know? And you make money. Who wouldn’t want to do that?”

Other people in the crew said they appreciate the chance to earn money, but also appreciate doing something to help the city.


“It’s giving back to the community,” Caiazzo said. “Hopefully it’ll catch on and we won’t have so much clutter around here.”

Also on the crew was Nichole Hill, who moved into the Alpha shelter about three weeks ago after being homeless for 18 months.

“I get to give back to the community and have some extra money to get around,” she said, adding that her pay will help her visit her 5-year-old son, who is staying with her parents.

In a year, she said she plans to have her own place and a job, and she also wants to volunteer with the Alpha Project or a similar organization.


“Being homeless makes you realize how it is, and you want to help other people,” she said.

Crew member Regina Meals said she had been homeless five years, and Monday was the first time she had worked in many years.

“It means everything to me,” she said about the opportunity. “I’m going to start my life all over again.”

The Alpha Project tent is one of three similar bridge housing shelters that together serve about 700 people as part of a program Mayor Kevin Faulconer introduced last year.


“This is all about creating more opportunities for homeless individuals to lift themselves out of extreme poverty,” Faulconer said Monday about the new work program. “Wheels for Change will help restore dignity by allowing people to earn a paycheck and begin to get back on their feet.

“For many this may be just the chance they need to begin turning their lives around,” he said in a news release.

City Councilman Scott Sherman joined Faulconer in praising the new program Monday.

“An important step to a successful transition out of homelessness is re-exposure to the dignity of work,” he said. “The Wheels of Change program provides the opportunity to participate in this confidence-building experience.”


McElroy also said that the program was more about giving people in the program an opportunity to earn money. It also helps their self-esteem, he said, and may even change the image some people have of homeless people downtown.

“When they think of the homeless, they think of alcoholics or bag ladies, but here’s these folks who are cleaning up the neighborhood,” he said. “It’s a great way to tear down barriers.”

Besides cleaning up streets, people in the crews also will assist outreach teams to help them connect other homeless people with services.

“I’m a huge advocate of giving people a chance to be part of the solution,” McElroy said.


About 100 people are on the waiting list to join a Wheels for Change crew, he said.


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gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @GaryWarthUT


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