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'Mano y Mano' Day Labor Program Puts Jobs in Hands of Las Cruces Homeless

Michael Hernandez

http://youtu.be/jaGeZhTd0hI

For those experiencing homelessness, the lack of a steady job and income can be demoralizing. But sometimes all it takes is a broom and a rake to instill a person’s sense of self-worth.

That’s the goal of the Mano y Mano Day Labor program, a joint effort by the City of Las Cruces and Mesilla Valley Community of Hope. The program started in May and provides work twice a week to people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Participants are shuttled from the Community of Hope to clean up the city’s parks every Monday and Friday. They work for five hours at the city’s minimum wage totaling $46 a day. That’s not much, but it’s enough to help Lorena Ramos and her partner Joe Montoya keep the lights on in their new house. The couple said a friend is letting them stay at the house while they clean it up and because of the program, they can pay their utilities.

“Like it helps us pay our electric, it helps us pay our water bill. Something to eat every day whenever we get money. We even save the money so we can pay our bills,” Ramos said.

Since it’s in the early stage, the program is employing just 10 people per day, but it could expand up to 20 people working five days a week depending on its success. Supervisor John Hawk said he’s seen the program receive an enormous response.

“Every time I come to pick up a crew of 10 people, I have 30 people waiting to come to work,” Hawk said. “So, the crew that comes out with me, they’ll come to a park that they’ve never been to and in six hours or five hours, they’ll see the difference that they’ve made, and a lot of them say ‘Man, you should have took a picture before we did this and after’ and they really take pride in their work and not all of them are excited to work, but most of them are. Most of them are and they really do take pride in the results that they can actually see that they’ve made.”

Data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated nearly 2,500 New Mexicans were homeless in 2017, up roughly 10 percent from the previous year. Among them are nearly 250 veterans like Fidel Patterson, who said he became homeless after some personal troubles.

“A lot of it was personal, I went through a divorce and well, by me being a gentleman I gave her everything and I lived in a shopping cart. And I eventually gravitated to Tent City over by the Community of Hope and entered the veterans program that they have and they gave me an incentive,” Patterson said. “They gave me encouragement to you know, come up. You know when you hit rock bottom, you can't go nowhere but up.”

Since arriving at the Community of Hope several years ago, Patterson said he’s gained more confidence in himself and his abilities. While he can’t work full-time due to a disability from his service, Patterson said he does the best he can and is thankful for the shelter’s programs.

Like other cities, Las Cruces is following the lead of Albuquerque’s “There’s a Better Way” homeless work program established in 2015. Data from Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller’s office said the program has employed nearly 1,600 people since its inception, 76 of which have found permanent employment.

Mesilla Valley Community of Hope Executive Director Nicole Martinez said she’s hopeful the program will expand soon to help clients secure more long-term employment and end their homelessness. But she also said the program alone isn’t enough.

“You know I realize that minimum wage going two days out a week, typically only once a week because there are so many people, isn’t going to pay somebody’s first month’s rent or deposit in their first shot for a lot of the clients,” Martinez said. “But being able to save, being able to increase self-esteem, being able to have access to resources, all of those things when you put them all together shows that they can have an impact with what they are making.”

Hawk, a veteran who used to be homeless himself, said many of the program’s participants return each week. He said that regularity helps him track their progress and connect them to the services they need while providing a sense of accomplishment.

I will tell my crew in the morning after I get them their sunscreen and their hats and their gloves and make sure everything is safe, I say ‘You know what, I don’t see you people as homeless people. I see you people as people who are struggling a lot like everybody else and who are earning a paycheck. So, today you have value. Today you are worth something and today you are appreciated,’” Hawk said. “That gets validated when they’ll see somebody who’s walking their dog or running the trail and they’ll say ‘Hey, thank you for maintaining this for us. It looks beautiful.’”

Ramos said she would like to see the city provide more job programs for homeless people because like her, they want and enjoy the work.

“Now that we’re working out here and people seeing what we can do and stuff, we get a lot of comments and stuff. ‘Oh, we like what you’re doing,’ you know? They don’t look at us as homeless; they look at us as actual human beings,” Ramos said. “We just need more programs like this, to give us a chance and show them what we can do. That we’re not just homeless people, we’re humans too.”

By putting the human first, the Mano y Mano program is meeting its mission to lend a helping hand.

Michael Hernandez was a multimedia reporter for KRWG Public Media from late 2017 through early 2020. He continues to appear on KRWG-TV from time to time on our popular "EnviroMinute" segments, which feature conservation and citizen science issues in the region.