This story appeared in the Sept. 3 edition of the Daily Post. Want to catch all of the news when it’s first reported? Be sure to pick up a Post at over 1,000 locations every morning.
BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A Palo Alto nonprofit that hires homeless people to pick up trash from city streets is ending its operation at the end of October because of the “current political and financial environment,” CEO Julie Gardner said in a statement yesterday.
Downtown Streets Team was founded in Palo Alto in 2005 and has grown to work in 16 cities from Salinas to Sacramento, serving the dual purpose of helping the homeless and keeping communities clean.
“The current political and financial environment has
significantly impacted the organization’s ability to continue sustainable programs,” Gardner said in a statement.
Downtown Streets Team has helped 2,211 people get housing and 2,103 people get jobs for more than 90 days, all while removing 33.1 million gallons of debris from city streets, Gardner said.
“We are deeply proud of the impact we have made over the last 20 years,” she said.
Gardner declined an interview yesterday.
Downtown Streets Team has contracts with the cities of Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, San Jose and Redwood City.
Palo Alto is developing transition plans for downtown cleaning, homeless outreach services and the food closet, city spokeswoman Meghan Horrigan-Taylor said in an email yesterday.
Downtown Streets Team changed its business model in October 2023 after the city of San Francisco investigated the nonprofit for allegedly underpaying its team members.
The city said team members were employees, not volunteers.
The Downtown Streets Team agreed to pay San Francisco $800,000 over eight years, according to a settlement agreement signed in November 2023.
At the same time, the nonprofit stopped tying a $50 weekly stipend to doing trash pickup.
This led to a drop in participation, Chief Program Officer Chris Richardson said in an interview at the time.
After the change, downtown Palo Alto business owners complained about a deterioration in cleanliness, and Councilman Pat Burt said the Downtown Streets Team “disappeared.”
“Now they’re back, but they’re not doing the same cleaning they were,” Burt said at a council meeting in March 2024.
Jon Goldman, a downtown landlord for Premier Properties, said team members know Palo Alto well and do a good job.
“My experience is they’re extremely diligent and really proud of their work,” Goldman said in an interview.
Richardson said the new business model was more effective at helping people out of homelessness.
“We’re executing our mission better than we were six months ago, and I’m proud of that,” Richardson said.
Palo Alto City Council shortened its contract with Downtown Streets Team in December 2020 after the nonprofit refused to provide a report about a sexual harassment investigation.
Owen Byrd, then-chairman of the nonprofit board, said the report cleared the organization but acknowledged that between 2013 and 2014, the Downtown Streets Team had two staff parties “where there was too much alcohol.”
“The agency’s culture has since corrected itself,” he said.
Council approved a three-year, $528,409 contract extension with Downtown Streets Team in February 2024 that included an expansion to clean around California Avenue.
In Redwood City, the nonprofit has received $2.6 million over the last six years to clean up parks, streets, creeks and encampments while helping team members find permanent housing.
A taxpayer funded nonprofit, say no more.