A new Madison organization is paying the homeless to participate in cleaning the streets of downtown showing innovative leadership.
From the Capital Times:
Local businesses can subscribe at $50, $100 or $500 a month to have the area around their storefronts cleaned. Varying contributions receive varying levels of publicity for their support, in the form of different storefront stickers and more prominent places on the This Lovely City website.
The operation is currently running with zero overhead, which means that 100 percent of donations will go toward cleaning supplies or paying the homeless, Merrick said.
Although the organization boasts the double benefits of a beautified city and work for the otherwise unemployed, Merrick believes the true worth of the program is the sense of ownership it gives to homeless people.
That thought would evolve over the years into This Lovely City, an organization that will pay the homeless to clean the streets of downtown Madison.
Full story at Capital Times