There are dust clouds hanging in the stairwells of an empty building on Liberty Street as Michael and Edgar, workers from nonprofit Building Value, hustle to clean out the hulking structure. They’ve just finished sweeping and are now lugging garbage cans full of debris down a narrow set of stairs.
As the two work on the first stages of renovating the space, they’re also taking steps toward a redevelopment of their own. Both are part of the city’s new Employment Pipeline Pilot Project, an initiative that started this spring to get homeless Cincinnatians into jobs, housing and some stability.
Michael has been working for Building Value through the new pipeline program for five months. He says his minimum wage, full-time job is a huge step in a more hopeful direction.
“I was doing a big fat nothing before this,” he says, citing struggles with depression and difficulties finding work.
So far, the program, which City Councilwoman Yvette Simpson’s office pushed for and oversees with the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, has six people working at Building Value, the Cincinnati Parks Department and West End-based Nehemiah Construction. Another six are in the acceptance process as the pilot moves into its sixth month. Hopes are that 15 to 20 people can be employed throughout the duration of the pipeline’s one-year pilot program. The pilot is funded by $50,000 in city money allocated by a unanimous Cincinnati City Council vote this spring and managed by Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, a partner in the program from the beginning.
Simpson’s office began pursuing the program after learning about other programs that provide work to city residents experiencing homelessness in Reno, N.ev., and Albuquerque, N.M., both of which started last year. Reno’s effort provided a short, nine-week program, though it did also include case workers, housing and training. Albuquerque’s program focuses mostly on providing day-by-day labor, picking up homeless individuals in a van to do beautification projects.
Those programs have seen some success — Albuquerque’s has had hundreds of participants, while Reno’s has graduated four classes, totaling 27 people. But Cincinnati’s program is different and more ambitious, says Homeless Coalition Executive Director Josh Spring, in that it works with local employers to provide sustainable jobs with a pathway to long-term work and recovery.
That made Building Value a natural partner. Currently, three pipeline participants work with the organization.
“The whole goal here is to find all of our workers permanent employment within six months,” says Building Value supervisor Chris Miday. Miday says many Building Value employees move on to full-time work with Messer Construction or one of its subcontractors. Some move on into professional certifications — one former employee, for instance, is now an electrician.
“He makes twice what I make now,” Miday says, laughing.
Michael hopes to take a similar path to better things. At 33, he’s direct about his past. Three years ago, he had a decent job working for a subsidiary of Rumpke, a place of his own and “two beautiful dogs,” he says. But he’s suffered from depression and addiction, forces that led him down a harder road when a friend who was hard up moved in with him and introduced him to heroin.
“Within eight months, my life went from pretty damn good to ‘Holy shit, I’m living in my car,’ ” he says. “I sold off my music equipment, I sold off anything of value. I even sold my Kitchen Aide mixer.”
Rock bottom came when he was arrested and convicted on a misdemeanor theft charge while trying to pay for a fix. He spent four months in the Hamilton County Justice Center. Since then, he’s been in and out of the Drop Inn Center, gotten clean and started school at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College studying information technology. Money woes have made it difficult to finish, but the job helps.
For the past five months, he’s been on Building Value’s deconstruction team, doing everything from sweeping up dusty floors to helping remove the roofs from old buildings.
As he works, Michael has been living in Over-the-Rhine Community Housing’s Recovery Hotel, which he says has been a big help. The pipeline program also works with OTRCH’s Jimmy Heath House, as well as Interfaith Hospitality Network, Bethany House and St. John/St. Joseph Catholic Worker House. In an effort to remove employment barriers, the program also supplies bus passes provided by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority.
“With the theft on my record, I was having huge difficulties getting work, even though it’s just a misdemeanor,” Michael says. “I’ve had several good leads. I’d always get to that second interview stage, and then they’d run my background check, and it’d fall through every time.”
Through the pipeline program, Michael says he was able to find an employer who sees beyond his past.
“His maturity is what we really like,” Miday says of Michael. “He’s just a great, smart guy with a good attitude. When you want a clean break, you don’t really care what you’re doing, you just want something to bring a check in and keep you busy and give you a path to work toward something.”
Both the pathway to sustainable work and a change in perception about those experiencing homelessness are key parts of the program, Homeless Coalition director Spring says. All of the employers involved provide around 30 or more hours a week to participants and the potential to move into full-time work after the program is over. But there’s a bigger goal.
“In communities across the country, Cincinnati included, there’s a perception that people without homes brought it upon themselves; they made bad decisions, they’re lazy, don’t want to work,” Spring says. “In a lot of ways, what we’re trying to do is create communication — the idea is that there are plenty of people experiencing homelessness who are ready and really want to have a job. They bring skills and strengths and abilities to the table.”
Spring says 60 percent of men in the coalition’s shelters are working, mostly day labor jobs that offer little stability or opportunity for advancement. The pipeline is a way to something better, he says.
Back at the job site, Edgar is hustling to clear out a small, sun-lit room overlooking Liberty Street. He’s been on the job just a few days. He’s a welder by trade but says mistakes in his past mean he’s had to start over.
“So far, it’s good,” he says of the program. “I’ve been like a hamster on a hamster wheel, staying in one place. This is a place of a new beginning. I can get some clarity on what I want to do with my life. That’s what I’m looking for.” ©
This article appears in Aug 31 – Sep 7, 2016.