His life nearly ended on the streets. But now, that’s where he is seeking redemption.
A convicted felon, Artie Gilbert is a supervisor for San Francisco Public Works’ Tenderloin Clean Team, a new group of 16 public housing residents and parolees. The crew cleans the dirtiest sidewalks in the city’s filthiest neighborhood from 5 to 9 a.m. Its members make $16 an hour and wake long before residents do, sweeping up needles, trash and spoiled food under an inky sky.
The program, which costs $600,000 annually, was started in late October, and Gilbert was one of the first hires. The 46-year-old had just been released from Solano State Prison in Vacaville. He had been behind bars for 26 years serving a first-degree murder sentence. Gilbert had learned violence in the streets, he said. Raised by his grandmother and single mother in Los Angeles, he got tangled up with a gang as a teenager.
But now, he is free. Gilbert was recruited for the street cleaning gig by Hunters Point Family, an organization that supports people who face problems finding employment. He is in transitional housing in the Tenderloin, a few blocks from Turk and Mason streets, where the crews start their morning. He is proud of what he does — how he is the one tasked with cleaning the sidewalks children walk to school and the intersections residents cross to buy coffee.
“In my life, I destroyed my community,” Gilbert said. “A lot of people said I’d never be able to come out here 26 years later and build one. You don’t need drugs or liquor or to stand on the corner or be homeless. The force is with you, and there is a right way to do it.”
The crew breaks off in pairs or clusters of four, wielding trash pickers, shovels, brooms and garbage cans. As city buses whir to life, humming slowly along the Tenderloin’s main arteries, the group snags the neighborhood’s detritus. Into the garbage bin go used tissues, pizza boxes, shriveled lime wedges, plastic bags, half-eaten ramen bowls, shattered glass and needles — so many needles.
In November, they collected 2,873 needles. Most mornings, they gather more than 100. But on one morning in late November, they collected 235. That month, they also filled 2,089 trash bags, handled 113 reports of feces and scrubbed 17 graffiti murals. There were 56 bulky items reported, and they hefted two chairs, three couches, one bike, two microwaves, six mattresses and a 7Up soda machine into trash trucks.
Public Works crews used to blitz the Tenderloin in the morning before dispersing to their assigned districts across the city. The new crew alleviates that workload, department spokeswoman Rachel Gordon said. Now, only the crew assigned to the Tenderloin — a full-time group of employees who have been sweeping the neighborhood for years — and this new crew begin their mornings in the neighborhood.
But that doesn’t mean there’s less detritus to clean. On a recent morning, crewman Tyrone Corley, 31, who lives in Hunters Point public housing, speared a condom wrapper and deposited it in a rolling bin. He also works at a Recreation and Park Department after-school program.
“Some of this stuff is so nasty,” Corley said. “The trash is everywhere around here. But this is what they have to live with and go through. If the homeless weren’t here, I wouldn’t be working. I’m not tripping.”
The cleaning gigs aren’t meant to last forever, said Mohammed Nuru, director of public works. They are feeder jobs, ones that help a vulnerable population earn a few dollars before deciding what they want to do next.
“We want to understand your past but not judge it,” Nuru said on Wednesday morning, grabbing a broom and pushing a flurry of confetti into a dustpan. “We all make mistakes. We want people who are serious about being given an opportunity. Getting a chance at an entry-level job gives you a way to deal with challenges we all face. It’s physical, and it builds your resume.”
Gilbert fits the job description. Someday he wants to study accounting in college, he said, and work for a friend’s business. But for now, he’s happy being back on the streets, this time with a broom and bucket in hand.
“This job is everything to me right now,” he said. “It’s another chance to get it right.”
