LR looks to reoffer homeless work

‘Bridge to Work’ paid $9.25 an hour to beautify the city

The city of Little Rock is looking to restart a program that paid homeless individuals an hourly wage for day labor sometime in the spring, according to the city manager.

Known as “A Bridge to Work,” the program run by Canvas Community Church paid participants $9.25 per hour in exchange for them picking up trash or performing other beautification-related tasks over four hours.

When reached via email Tuesday, City Manager Bruce Moore said the program “was mainly discontinued due to the pandemic.”

“The City found partnering with a non-profit to facilitate homeless services while also helping to clean up the city to be very beneficial for all involved,” he added. “We are planning to relaunch this Spring depending how we are progressing in this fight against covid.”

At a Little Rock Board of Directors meeting on Nov. 30, Moore had said the program would restart after the first of the year.

His remark came while describing how the city had recently put out a request for proposals for a day-labor-style service similar to the “A Bridge to Work” program.

A six-month pilot program with the church was approved by the Board of Directors in March 2019 at a cost of $80,000.

Little Rock would provide a van from the Public Works Department and Canvas church would provide supervisors three days a week, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported at the time.

A memorandum of understanding between Little Rock and the church said two supervisors paid $11 an hour would oversee program participants, according to the ordinance adopted in 2019. Individuals would get

picked up, taken to the work site or sites and dropped off again at the end of the work day, the measure said.

Later, in September 2019, the city board with an unanimous voice vote approved an ordinance to extend the program for another year, according to meeting minutes of the city board.

Participants worked to pick up garbage or debris through the program, which also sought to connect them with services or employment.

Rev. Paul Atkins of Canvas, who led the program, told the Democrat-Gazette in 2019 that 348 people had participated in the program.

Forty-two of 153 individuals who were panhandling and were invited to participate in the program had accepted, the Democrat-Gazette reported.

The church is located at 1111 W. 7th St. Atkins could not be reached for comment by phone Tuesday.