DBIA, Warming Room hiring marginalized people to clean downtown

Over the next four months, 12 homeless and marginalized people will be offered jobs cleaning downtown Peterborough and making a living wage.

The Downtown Business Improvement Area (DBIA), in partnership with the Warming Room Community Ministries, announced plans Tuesday for the One City Peterborough program, which will hire people through the Warming Room emergency shelter to help clean the central area.

DBIA executive director Terry Guiel said the initiative will help deal with some of the problems facing downtown Peterborough.

Over the past few years the DBIA has undertaken a few initiatives to improve safety and reduce those perceived issues, he said.

That includes last year’s ambassador program, which saw security guards roaming the downtown, and a grant for security cameras that handed out $8,300 as of earlier this month.

Acknowledging criticism of the ambassador program, the DBIA is changing tactics.

“Through trial and error, through success and failures we’ve reached this moment,” Guiel said.

The project was inspired by a similar cleanup program in Vancouver, but Guiel said it needed to be adapted to better help the local homeless population.

Cleaners will make around $17.50 an hour, but shifts may be limited so workers earning Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) can still apply to that program.

Guiel said the program has two goals: To create jobs while beautifying the downtown.

The program has a component of outreach, something missing from the ambassador program, and expects to see much stronger community support because of that, he said.

The One City initiative will have two teams, one going through the downtown with trolleys to clean up areas not touched by city or private cleaners and a second team of two outreach workers to assist marginalized people on the street.

The program will run from July 1 to Sept. 30, with hopes of extending it year-round, Guiel said.

Christian Harvey, director of the Warming Room, said he’s excited to finally see the program get off the ground and that it will encompass the diversity of downtown’s population.

“Our goal is to create a space where people of various backgrounds are getting to interact and get to know each other,” Harvey said.

He said the program will include shop owners as well as people who live and work downtown while helping people who have barriers preventing them from having traditional employment.

In the long-term, Harvey said, he hopes more support funding can be secured to make sure the project runs year-round.

The project will cost $49,500, with half of funding coming from the DBIA and the rest raised through partnerships and sponsors, Harvey said.

“Having the marginalized being able to give back, help out and be paid for it at a livable wage is great,” said city police Deputy Chief Tim Farquharson, who was on hand for the announcement along with city councillors.

Farquharson said he sees city police as further supporting projects like this to help deal with poverty and homelessness in the downtown.

“We support that initiative and anything else we can do, we’ll be doing,” Farquharson said.

“Unfortunately there is a perception issue we constantly fight with in the downtown,” said Guiel, listing addiction, poverty and mental health as examples.

Our goal is to create a space where people of various backgrounds are getting to interact. CHRISTIAN HARVEY