Sacramento County To Pay Homeless People To Clean Debris From Camps Along American River Parkway

A new Sacramento County program will pay homeless people to clean up where fellow unsheltered people camp in tents along the American River Parkway.

Supervisors approved a partnership on Tuesday that would allocate $387,200 to PRIDE Industries, a Roseville-based nonprofit that specializes in job training, to help oversee the one-year program.

“They'll be basically doing jobs, cleaning up the homeless camps and other areas in the parkway and the county, and while they’re doing that they’re also going to be receiving job training,” Supervisor Sue Frost said of the program.

Workers will put in 24 hours a week for 10 weeks, earning $12 an hour and also acquiring certificates that could help them transition into construction jobs. The county hopes that 40 people will graduate the program this year.

The American River Parkway has long been a destination for homeless campers, and tents can be seen dotting the riverfront from Discovery Park toward Highway 160 and along East Sacramento toward Sacramento State.

Frost touted the job-training aspect of this latest clean-up proposal.

“I think a lot of my constituents are going to be excited about this, because it’s not just giving them fish, it’s teaching them how to fish,” she said. “And that’s even better. It’s better than just giving a hand out, it’s teaching them how to survive.”

The clean-ups will begin in March.