A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety
-
0:01 - 0:05So, raise your hand
if you've seen somebody in your city -
0:05 - 0:08standing on a corner,
holding a sign like this. -
0:10 - 0:12I think we all have.
-
0:12 - 0:13If you're being honest,
-
0:13 - 0:15at least one time,
have you wondered if they mean it? -
0:17 - 0:20If we offered them a job,
would they really take it? -
0:20 - 0:22And what would that job mean
to them in their lives? -
0:23 - 0:26Well, this is a story
about what happened in my city -
0:26 - 0:28when we decided to find out,
-
0:29 - 0:32when we decided to think differently
about panhandling, -
0:32 - 0:35and lift people up
through the dignity of work. -
0:36 - 0:38We call it, "There's a Better Way."
-
0:38 - 0:40We call it There's a Better Way
-
0:40 - 0:43because I believe there's a better way
to get the money you need -
0:43 - 0:45than panhandling on the corner.
-
0:45 - 0:49I believe there's a better way
to help your brothers and sisters in need -
0:49 - 0:52than handing a few dollars
out the car window. -
0:52 - 0:54We know there's dignity in work.
-
0:55 - 0:59We also know that people are much more
likely to invest in themselves -
0:59 - 1:02if they believe that their community
is willing to invest in them first. -
1:03 - 1:07And because we're all wired
to be kind and compassionate, -
1:07 - 1:10it always feels good to hand
a couple of dollars to someone -
1:10 - 1:12that is in need.
-
1:13 - 1:16But if you talk to panhandlers,
many of them will tell you -
1:16 - 1:21that your few dollars don't necessarily
go towards feeding the body, -
1:21 - 1:23they go towards feeding an addiction.
-
1:24 - 1:26There's a better way.
-
1:27 - 1:28My name is Richard Berry,
-
1:28 - 1:30and I have one of the best
jobs in the world. -
1:30 - 1:33I get to be the mayor
of a great American city, -
1:33 - 1:34Albuquerque, New Mexico.
-
1:36 - 1:41I was at lunch on July 17, 2015,
in my great American city, -
1:42 - 1:44and on my way back to city hall,
-
1:44 - 1:47I saw this gentleman standing on a corner.
-
1:47 - 1:49As you can see, he's holding a sign,
-
1:49 - 1:51and his sign says he wants a job.
-
1:52 - 1:54But if you look closer at the picture,
-
1:54 - 1:56you'll see he's standing
underneath a blue sign, -
1:56 - 2:00and that sign says, if you need help,
if you need food or shelter -
2:00 - 2:01or you'd like to donate,
-
2:01 - 2:04please call 311,
our community service number. -
2:05 - 2:10So why is this guy standing
underneath my sign with his sign? -
2:11 - 2:14Well, we wondered
if anybody would call that 311 sign, -
2:14 - 2:15and as it turns out, they did --
-
2:15 - 2:1711,000 times people called.
-
2:17 - 2:19I put those up in about 30 intersections.
-
2:19 - 2:22And we did connect them
with food and shelter and services. -
2:22 - 2:25But yet he's still standing under my sign
-
2:25 - 2:26with a sign that says he wants a job.
-
2:28 - 2:30It's simple: he wants a job.
-
2:31 - 2:34So I decided to do
something rare in government. -
2:34 - 2:39I decided to make the solution simpler
rather than more complicated. -
2:39 - 2:41I went back to my office,
I gathered my staff around -
2:41 - 2:44and I said, "We're going
to take this man at his word, -
2:44 - 2:45and others like him.
-
2:45 - 2:48The man says he wants a job,
we're going to give him a job, -
2:48 - 2:52and we're going to make our city
an even better place in the meantime." -
2:52 - 2:54You see, Albuquerque is a beautiful place.
-
2:54 - 2:56We're a mile high,
-
2:56 - 2:58the Sandia Mountains on the east,
-
2:58 - 3:00the Rio Grande runs through
the center of the city; -
3:00 - 3:03we're the home of the Albuquerque
International Balloon Fiesta. -
3:03 - 3:05On a day like today,
-
3:05 - 3:08you could literally ski this morning
and golf this afternoon. -
3:08 - 3:10But there's always something to do --
-
3:10 - 3:12always weeds to pull, litter to pick up.
-
3:13 - 3:16If you're going to have an initiative
like this in your city, -
3:16 - 3:18you have to ask yourself two questions.
-
3:18 - 3:20First one is: Is there anything
left to do in your city? -
3:20 - 3:22And if the answer is no,
-
3:22 - 3:24would you please give me
your mayor's phone number, -
3:24 - 3:25because I need some advice.
-
3:25 - 3:26(Laughter)
-
3:26 - 3:29But the second question
you have to ask is this: -
3:29 - 3:31Are your solutions to panhandling working?
-
3:33 - 3:34If you're like Albuquerque,
-
3:34 - 3:37and you're taking the punitive
approach like we used to, -
3:37 - 3:40handing out tickets to panhandlers
or those who give them money, -
3:40 - 3:42I'm going to suggest
that your solutions aren't working, -
3:43 - 3:46and I know you're not getting
to the root of your problem in your city. -
3:47 - 3:48So if you have something to do
-
3:49 - 3:52and you need people
that need something to do, -
3:52 - 3:53there's a better way.
-
3:53 - 3:55And the good news is,
it's not that complicated. -
3:56 - 3:58This a 2006 Dodge van.
-
3:59 - 4:01It was in my motor pool
not doing anything. -
4:01 - 4:04We put some new tires on it,
wrapped it with a logo. -
4:04 - 4:08This van now goes out to street corners
where our panhandlers are -- -
4:08 - 4:09we go to them.
-
4:10 - 4:11We stop the van, we get out,
-
4:11 - 4:13we ask them if they
would like a day's work -
4:13 - 4:15rather than panhandling for the day.
-
4:16 - 4:19And if you wondered
if they really mean it -- -
4:20 - 4:23it takes us about an hour
to fill this van up in the morning, -
4:23 - 4:26because almost everybody we ask
takes a job for the day. -
4:27 - 4:29But you need more than just a van.
-
4:30 - 4:33You need a super-fantastic
human being to drive that van. -
4:33 - 4:36And my super-fantastic human being,
his name is Will. -
4:36 - 4:38This is him in the yellow vest.
-
4:38 - 4:40Will works at our local nonprofit partner.
-
4:40 - 4:42He works with the homeless every day.
-
4:42 - 4:44The panhandlers trust him,
-
4:45 - 4:46he believes in them,
-
4:47 - 4:48he hustles.
-
4:48 - 4:51I like to say, "Where
there's a Will, there's a way." -
4:51 - 4:54So if you're going to do
the Better Way campaign in your city, -
4:54 - 4:56you need to find yourself a Will,
-
4:57 - 5:01because he's really one of the keys
to making this successful -
5:01 - 5:03in the city of Albuquerque.
-
5:03 - 5:05You also need a great nonprofit partner.
-
5:05 - 5:07Ours is St. Martin's Hospitality Center.
-
5:07 - 5:10They've been in our community
for over 30 years. -
5:10 - 5:12They provide counseling, food, shelter,
-
5:12 - 5:14and if they don't provide it,
-
5:14 - 5:16they know somebody in our city that does.
-
5:17 - 5:19But they do something much more
for me as the mayor. -
5:19 - 5:21They provide agility.
-
5:21 - 5:23You see, it takes me two weeks,
-
5:23 - 5:25maybe two months sometimes,
-
5:25 - 5:27to onboard an employee
with the city of Albuquerque. -
5:28 - 5:30So you could imagine --
-
5:30 - 5:31my old Dodge van,
-
5:31 - 5:33my super-fantastic human being, Will,
-
5:33 - 5:35a great local nonprofit partner --
-
5:35 - 5:37they drive to the corner,
there's a panhandler, -
5:38 - 5:40they say, "Would you like
to work for the day?" -
5:40 - 5:41The panhandler says, "Yes,"
-
5:41 - 5:44and Will says, "Great! I'll be back
in six weeks to pick you up." -
5:44 - 5:45(Laughter)
-
5:45 - 5:46It wouldn't work.
-
5:46 - 5:51It's really important that we have
that agility in our program. -
5:51 - 5:52And they do the paperwork,
-
5:52 - 5:54they do the insurance,
-
5:54 - 5:57they do all of the other forms
that I can't do quickly. -
5:58 - 6:00We pay our panhandlers
nine dollars an hour. -
6:00 - 6:02We feed them once at the jobsite.
-
6:02 - 6:03At the end of the day,
-
6:03 - 6:06our old Dodge van takes them
right back to St. Martin's, -
6:06 - 6:08and they get connected
with counseling services. -
6:10 - 6:11So far,
-
6:11 - 6:13with the pilot program
and a couple days a week, -
6:13 - 6:16and a fantastic human being
and a Dodge van, -
6:16 - 6:20we've cleaned up 400 city blocks
in the city of Albuquerque. -
6:20 - 6:24We've picked up over 117,000 pounds
of trash, weeds and litter. -
6:24 - 6:26I don't know if you've ever
weighed a tumbleweed, -
6:26 - 6:28but they don't weigh much,
-
6:28 - 6:32so you can imagine the volume
of material that we've picked up. -
6:32 - 6:35My city has 6,000 employees,
-
6:35 - 6:38and none better
than my solid waste department. -
6:38 - 6:41We send our trucks out
at the end of the day, -
6:41 - 6:43they help the panhandlers
put into the truck -
6:43 - 6:45the material they've picked up
during the day, -
6:45 - 6:47and we take it to the landfill.
-
6:47 - 6:48I'm lucky that I have city employees
-
6:48 - 6:51that are willing to work side by side
with our panhandlers. -
6:51 - 6:54They're lifting up our city
while lifting up their lives. -
6:54 - 6:57And like anything else --
listen, it takes resources. -
6:57 - 7:00But the good news is it doesn't take much.
-
7:01 - 7:03We started with an old van,
-
7:03 - 7:05a super-fantastic human being,
-
7:05 - 7:06a great local nonprofit
-
7:06 - 7:08and $50,000.
-
7:09 - 7:11But we also had to have community trust.
-
7:11 - 7:14And fortunately, we had built
that up in years prior to Better Way. -
7:15 - 7:17We have a program called
"Albuquerque Heading Home," -
7:17 - 7:21a Housing First model where we house
the chronically homeless, -
7:21 - 7:24and when I told my community
we wanted to do that differently, -
7:24 - 7:26I said there's a smart way
to do the right thing. -
7:27 - 7:31We have now housed 650 chronically
homeless, medically vulnerable -- -
7:31 - 7:34frankly, most likely to die
on the streets in our city. -
7:34 - 7:37We commissioned our university,
they studied it. -
7:37 - 7:40We could tell the taxpayers,
we can save you 31.6 percent -
7:40 - 7:44over the cost of leaving someone
to struggle for survival on the streets. -
7:44 - 7:48We've now saved over five million dollars
while housing 650 people. -
7:48 - 7:50So we had that community trust,
-
7:50 - 7:54but we had to have a little bit more
of an honest conversation also -
7:54 - 7:55as a community,
-
7:55 - 7:57because we had to get people to understand
-
7:57 - 8:00that when they hand
those five dollars out the window, -
8:00 - 8:02they might actually be minimizing
their opportunity -
8:02 - 8:04to help the person in need,
and here's why: -
8:04 - 8:08that five dollars might go
to buying some fast food today -- -
8:08 - 8:11a lot of times it goes to buying
drugs and alcohol. -
8:11 - 8:12That same five dollars,
-
8:12 - 8:15if you gave it to one of our shelters,
-
8:15 - 8:16could feed seven people today.
-
8:16 - 8:21And if you gave it to one of our local
food banks or food pantries, -
8:21 - 8:23we could actually feed
20 people with that money. -
8:26 - 8:31People ask,"Well, Albuquerque
is 600,000 people -- million, metro -- -
8:31 - 8:34this wouldn't work in our city,
we're too big, we're too small." -
8:34 - 8:37I disagree; if you have
one panhandler on one city block, -
8:37 - 8:38you can do this.
-
8:38 - 8:40If you live in a city
of eight-and-half million people, -
8:40 - 8:42you can do this.
-
8:42 - 8:43It doesn't matter what you do.
-
8:43 - 8:46It's not the work that you do,
it's the dignity of the work. -
8:46 - 8:47You could do anything.
-
8:47 - 8:49So I think any city could do this.
-
8:49 - 8:50And people say to me,
-
8:51 - 8:53"Mayor, that's just a little too simple.
-
8:53 - 8:55It can't work that way."
-
8:55 - 8:57But I tell you what, friends:
-
8:57 - 8:59when you go to a street corner
-
8:59 - 9:01and you engage with a panhandler
with dignity and respect, -
9:01 - 9:04maybe for the first time in years,
maybe in their life, -
9:04 - 9:06and you tell them that you believe in them
-
9:06 - 9:09and that this is their city
as much as it's your city, -
9:09 - 9:14and that you actually need their help
to make our place better, -
9:14 - 9:17and you understand that this
isn't the answer to all their problems, -
9:17 - 9:19but at least it's a start,
-
9:19 - 9:21an amazing thing happens.
-
9:21 - 9:25When they get out on the jobsite
and they start working together, -
9:25 - 9:27you start seeing amazing things happen.
-
9:27 - 9:30They see teamwork; they see
the fact that they can make a difference. -
9:30 - 9:31And at the end of the day,
-
9:31 - 9:34when they get back to St. Martin's
in that old Dodge van, -
9:34 - 9:37they're much more likely to sign up
for whatever services they need -- -
9:37 - 9:40substance abuse, mental health
counseling, you name it. -
9:40 - 9:42So far with our pilot program,
-
9:42 - 9:45we've offered
about 1,700 days of day work. -
9:45 - 9:49We've connected 216 people
to permanent employment opportunities. -
9:50 - 9:54Twenty people actually qualified
for our Housing First model, -
9:54 - 9:55Heading Home,
-
9:55 - 9:56and they've been housed.
-
9:56 - 9:58And over 150 people have been connected
-
9:58 - 10:01to mental health substance abuse services
-
10:01 - 10:03through There's a Better Way.
-
10:03 - 10:05This is me just two weeks ago,
-
10:07 - 10:08at St. Martin's,
-
10:08 - 10:10doing our point-in-time survey
-
10:10 - 10:11that we do every two years.
-
10:12 - 10:15I'm interviewing a gentleman
who's homeless, like we do, -
10:15 - 10:18getting his information,
figuring out where he's from, -
10:18 - 10:19how he got there,
-
10:20 - 10:21what we can do to help him.
-
10:21 - 10:25And you notice he's holding the same sign
that the guy was holding in 2015, -
10:25 - 10:27same sign I walked out with here today.
-
10:28 - 10:31So you have to ask yourself:
Is it really making a difference? -
10:31 - 10:33Absolutely it's making a difference.
-
10:33 - 10:36Albuquerque is now
one of the national leaders -
10:36 - 10:39in combating some of the most stubborn
and persistent social issues -
10:39 - 10:40that we have.
-
10:40 - 10:42Combined with Albuquerque Heading Home,
-
10:42 - 10:43the Better Way program,
-
10:43 - 10:46Albuquerque has reduced unsheltered
homelessness in our city -
10:46 - 10:48by 80 percent last year.
-
10:49 - 10:51Since I took over as mayor,
-
10:51 - 10:54we've been able to reduce the chronic
homeless population in our city -
10:54 - 10:55by 40 percent.
-
10:56 - 10:57And by HUD's definition,
-
10:57 - 10:59we've gotten to functional zero,
-
10:59 - 11:02which means we've literally ended
veteran homelessness -
11:02 - 11:03in the city of Albuquerque,
-
11:03 - 11:05by being intentional.
-
11:05 - 11:08(Applause)
-
11:11 - 11:14So I'm happy to report
that other cities are hearing about this, -
11:14 - 11:16other mayors are calling us --
-
11:16 - 11:18Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Dallas --
-
11:19 - 11:21and are now starting to implement programs
-
11:21 - 11:24where they bring the dignity
of work to the equation. -
11:24 - 11:26And I can't wait to learn from them.
-
11:26 - 11:29I can't wait to see
what their experiment looks like, -
11:29 - 11:31what their pilot project looks like,
-
11:31 - 11:33so we can start taking
a collective approach nationally -
11:33 - 11:35through the dignity of work.
-
11:35 - 11:36And I want to commend them --
-
11:36 - 11:39the mayors, their communities,
their nonprofits -- -
11:39 - 11:40for the work that they're doing.
-
11:41 - 11:42So who's next?
-
11:43 - 11:46Are you and your city ready to step up?
-
11:47 - 11:50Are you ready to think differently
about these persistent social issues? -
11:51 - 11:53Are you ready to lift people up
in your community -
11:53 - 11:55through the dignity of work,
-
11:55 - 11:58and make your city
profoundly better in many ways? -
11:59 - 12:03Well, if you are, my friends,
I promise you there is a better way. -
12:03 - 12:04Thank you.
-
12:04 - 12:07(Applause)
- Title:
- A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety
- Speaker:
- Richard J. Berry
- Description:
-
When Richard J. Berry, the mayor of Albuquerque, saw a man on a street corner holding a cardboard sign that read "Want a job," he decided to take him (and others in his situation) up on it. He and his staff started a citywide initiative to help the homeless by giving them day jobs and a place to sleep -- and the results were incredible. Find out how your city can replicate Albuquerque's model with this frank and optimistic talk.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 12:21
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety | ||
Camille Martínez accepted English subtitles for A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety | ||
Camille Martínez edited English subtitles for A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for A practical way to help the homeless find work and safety |