Cleaning and greening the city by housing former homeless volunteers.

By Jim Reid

Habitat for the Homeless, a non-profit construction corporation dedicated to helping homeless people build decent housing for themselves and others. The housing units we build are provided to other clean and sober homeless people in exchange for volunteer service in our Adopt-a-Block/Park program.

Imagine litter-free, tree lined streets with no more street cleaning tickets for your auto.

Adopt-a-Block/Park Volunteer Program. The Adopt-a-Block program is aimed at our most able-bodied homeless who now push shopping carts full of bottles and cans around the streets. They would trade a shopping cart for volunteer work and housing. Adopt-a-Block program would get volunteers to cleanup litter, paint out graffiti, and care for newly planted trees on city streets. Volunteers would be provided with food, clothing, shelter, and medical care in exchange for 24 hours of volunteer work each week.

Some Habitat for the Homeless volunteers would staff a convenience store on wheels stocked with food from the SF Food Bank to deliver weekly food supplies to Adopt-a-Block volunteers. A similar recycled clothing store on wheels would provide clothing to volunteers. A mobile dental and medical office with a pharmacy would provide free monthly medical and dental care and prescription drugs to program volunteers.

The Adopt-a-Block/Park Program would save the City tens of millions of dollars each year, get homeless people off the streets, clean up litter and graffiti in our neighborhoods and rebuild the lives of former homeless volunteers. It would also increase street parking and eliminate parking tickets for street cleaning. No parking/street cleaning signs would be replaced with a sign reading: "This neighborhood block and street are maintained by Adopt-a-Block volunteer: Michael Smith."

Habitat for the Homeless and Adopt-a-Block are win-win-win solutions for San Francisco, our homeless, our neighborhoods, business, our tourist industry, and the environment.

http://www.habitatforthehomeless.org