Pueblo City Council approves program that helps homeless people 'get back on their feet'
Catholic Charities of Southern Colorado is hoping to roll out a job readiness program before June that will pay Pueblo's unhoused to assist with city cleanup projects.
Members of Pueblo City Council voted 5-2 on May 13 to approve an agreement granting $200,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for Catholic Charities to operate the program. Program Director Anu Keiley told the Chieftain that the nonprofit will kick off the program as soon as Mayor Heather Graham signs the agreement.
While Catholic Charities has other workforce development programs, the trash cleanup program will be its first focused specifically on the unhoused. Participants are allowed to work in the program for a maximum of 12 weeks.
Those who are willing may then transition to one of Catholic Charities other job readiness programs.
"It's helping these individuals get back on their feet," Keiley said. "It's giving them the opportunity that traditional employers may not give them."
Participants will begin the program as volunteers receiving $50 stipends. Participants willing and able to transition into subsidized employment will work 16 hours per week at minimum wage, according to the final agreement between Catholic Charities and the city.
Colorado's minimum wage for 2024 is $14.42 per hour. In 2025, the minimum wage is expected to increase to about $15.69 per hour, according to the agreement. Keiley told the Chieftain that Catholic Charities looks to recruit about 30 participants for the program and retain about 20 of them, as some attrition is expected.
Prior to city council's vote to approve the agreement on May 13, Keiley told members of council that the job assistance program has been about seven years in the making. After moving to the Steel City from Hawaii, she began thinking of ways to assist Pueblo's large unhoused population.
"(Pueblo's weather) didn't seem very conducive to being homeless... really cold in the winter, really hot in the summertime and I wanted to propose a solution for that," Keiley said. "This was that solution — a program where unhoused folks could earn a little bit of money while receiving services."
Programs allowing unhoused individuals to get paid while cleaning up the city have been implemented in places like Albuquerque, New Mexico and Tucson, Arizona, according to the Arizona Republic. Such programs also have been referenced by Pueblo City Council members, including District 2 Councilor Joe Latino, at previous meetings.
"We need to do what they are doing in some other places," Latino said at a Feb. 5 work session. "People are willing to go to work. They are paying them to clean up weeds, the trash and other kinds of things... Pueblo needs to be creative."
Latino, Mark Aliff, Dennis Flores, Charles Hernandez and Sarah Martinez were the five council members to vote for approval of the agreement with Catholic Charities. Council members Roger Gomez and Regina Maestri voted against approval.
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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: What to know about a Pueblo program that pays homeless people to clean up
