"As they clean up their lives, they clean up the streets of the city, using hard work, determination and perseverance,"

A common misconception about the Homeless is that they're lazy bums who'd rather sit around drinking and/or partying all day than to put in an honest day's work. To be sure, there are definitely some folks who do spend their days blitzed and useless to the rest of society, but the vast majority do not and they certainly enjoy an opportunity to make some much needed cash. Here DC has come up with a way to not only put some folks to work, but also a way to get their city cleaned up in the process. It's vaguely reminiscent of the old Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) Act, more commonly known as the Civilian Conservation Corps, which by the way, isn't a bad idea to restart, albeit in a slightly modified format. The possibilities are limited only by one's imagination and there's is certainly no shortage of public works that need some "work" on them! The Washington Times October 26, 2007 Friday Homeless find help, purpose in NOMA By Andrew Richards, THE WASHINGTON TIMES METROPOLITAN; B02

Gospel Rescue Ministries is helping homeless people clean up D.C. neighborhoods and move toward self-sufficiency.

"As they clean up their lives, they clean up the streets of the city, using hard work, determination and perseverance," said organizers of the four-year-old Ready to Work program.

Members of what is known as the Clean Team were honored Wednesday by the NOMA business-improvement district.

On Oct. 1, the Clean Team started work on the 35-block Northwest neighborhood, removing 1,600 bags of trash and sediment and 10 truckloads of debris, said Elizabeth Price, president of the business district. NOMA is short for North of Massachusetts Avenue.

Ready to Work gives homeless people "a hand up instead of a hand out," organizer Antonio Otero said, adding that many of them struggle with such problems as drug addiction and street violence.

Participants receive a small stipend, job training and a place to live.

Members of the business district have a vested interest in the cleanup project. Private investors this year have put more than $1 billion into the district's 20 million square feet of office, residential, hotel and retail space.

"If you walked the streets of this neighborhood before, it just didn't look the way we said it was going to be," Miss Price said. "There was trash on the streets. There were weeds growing over fences and buildings, abandoned vehicles. ... It looked like a typical neighborhood that had been neglected for perhaps a number of years"

The men and women on the team, wearing blue NOMA work uniforms, clean streets and sidewalks seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

On Wednesday, they received a letter of recognition and posed for pictures with Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's nonvoting member of Congress.

"We want to transform lives at the same time of transforming an entire part of the District," said Mrs. Norton, a Democrat.

D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr., Ward 5 Democrat, and Clarence H. Carter, director of the city's Department of Human Services, joined Mrs. Norton and members of the business district.

"Sometimes it's OK to cast some of our neighbors adrift in the sea of public indifference," Mr. Carter said. "That is not going to be the case here. ... We are going to join forces with those of us experiencing the dehabilitating condition known as homelessness"

Said Mr. Thomas: If NOMA and Ready to Work "do not connect to people and let them know that they can be part of this revitalization ... then we have really failed."