Albuquerque program hires panhandlers to work in maintenance jobs

Re:Albuquerque program hires panhandlers to work in maintena... by MichaelBurge on Saturday August 13, 2016 @03:28PM (#12282733)

I wouldn't mind seeing a $500-2000 per-employee annual tax credit for businesses that employ the homeless. The types of jobs that are around minimum wage seem like they'd mostly be low-margin businesses, so this would be a pretty big incentive. And it seems cheaper than expanding shelters and similar programs(though you'll still need some shelters).

Maybe it would be better to assess the tax on non-homeless needed for this credit at the county level, since cost-of-living and homelessness are both local issues. Maybe it would work better as a property tax than an income tax, for similar reasons.

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Re:Albuquerque program hires panhandlers to work in maintena... by refurb on Saturday August 13, 2016 @09:49PM (#12283951)

How would you ensure that the company is actually hiring homeless employees? What exactly is homelessness? Where is the line? Who does background checks? What are the penalties for lying about being homeless to get the tax credit?

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Re:Albuquerque program hires panhandlers to work in maintena... by MichaelBurge on Saturday August 13, 2016 @10:33PM (#12284053)

There's already precedent in federal law, so I assume the states can just copy that.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/11302

There's also precedent in prioritizing auditing resources on offenders with large payoff, having the computer watch for suspicious tax forms, pricing penalties to include the people who get away with it, and whatever else they do to enforce the existing 2600 pages of federal tax law plus whatever state tax law.

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Re:Albuquerque program hires panhandlers to work in maintena... by ams6110 on Saturday August 13, 2016 @10:52PM (#12284094)

The problem is most chronically homeless people don't have any work or social skills, and aren't very smart or have addiction problems or mental illness. Even if they were "working" for free it wouldn't be worth it.

Even for minimum wage jobs most employers expect decent personal hygiene, punctuality, respectful behavior, at least some amount of self-discipline, and actual work.

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