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Central City Concern (CCC) is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit agency serving single adults and families in the Portland metro area who are impacted by homelessness, poverty and addictions. The agency has extensive experience in working with the homeless population as clients and employees. They have developed a comprehensive continuum of affordable housing options integrated with direct social services including healthcare, recovery and employment. CCC currently has a staff of 850+, an annual operating budget of $70 million and serves more than 13,000 individuals annually. CCC’s mission is to provide comprehensive solutions to ending homelessness and achieving self-sufficiency.

CCC has extensive experience and is the only agency in the downtown Portland area to employ formerly homeless individuals to provide services to cleanup homeless campsites. CCC employs formerly homeless individuals to provide these services through their Clean Start program, where it offers an opportunity for individuals to become self-sufficient productive members of society. Clean Start provides teams of two employees who travel throughout the city cleaning litter and debris at abandoned homeless camps and responding to services calls from Neighborhood Response Team officers. These teams consist of a permanent employee and a trainee who is part of the homeless to work training program. This program serves dual purposes (job training for the formerly homeless individuals and provide services that meet a need in the community). Fairly often these trainees have not worked in many years while others have never held a job. The program offers a place for these trainees to get into a routine and comfortable with working. Clean Start provides a work environment that is understanding, compassionate and where the focus is to help the trainees move onto permanent full-time employment. Most employers can’t offer this type of environment or spend that amount of time to mentor the trainees. These are two areas that could be vital for people with multiple barriers to employment to be successful thus mutually beneficial for the City and the employees hired through this contract.

CCC also provides all Clean Start trainees with employment services at the Employment Access Center (EAC) that include case management services throughout the duration of their employment. Each trainee hired in the program will work with a CCC Employment Specialist (ES) who will assess each individual’s assets and barriers to employment, this could include work experience, education, health, behavioral health, housing, substance abuse, and support systems. The assessment will be drafted prior the individual being hired as a trainee to CCC Clean Start. The ES will periodically meet with the trainees to pursue career advancement and further education. When appropriate, CCC will provide the individuals with transit passes, work clothes, and other services that reduces barriers to employment. The ES will provide the individuals with job preparation services such as résumé writing, interview skills and placement services. These employment services for the trainees are provided at no additional cost to the City of Portland for this contract.

With extensive experience running this homeless to work program, CCC has fine-tuned the program to make it successful for their trainees. The Program has approximately a 70% rate of CCC Clean Start trainees transitioning from this position to their next step of employment. CCC placed over 800 clients at over 400 different employers within the last year. Employees of CCC Clean Start act as role models and an information source as all of them were formerly homeless. This gives them credibility and gains trust from folks that are experiencing homelessness. People who are experiencing homelessness are much more likely to receive suggestions from someone who was formerly homeless. These suggestions may be how to keep camp area clean, bag up trash and make sure the sidewalk is not blocked, the results are less likelihood of complaints and being forced to move. Many times, CCC employees will know some of the people that they come in contact with and can offer advice on what they did to get clean and off the street. This creative strategy of utilizing employees who are formerly homeless for homeless camp cleanup results in effectively creating jobs and adding credibility to the effort. The credibility results in increased compliance with keeping the camp area clean and less of likelihood of complaints. This has made a difference on livability in many of the homeless camps that CCC crew visits.