Orange County looks to employ homeless via social enterprise

Orange County is looking at more solutions to get the homeless off the street and into the workforce.

The social enterprise movement is gaining momentum in the county with aims to provide employment opportunities for homeless people or those at risk of becoming homeless. While there are not yet concrete plans, local leaders of the cause are trying to rally support for the jobs it could create and the people it would help.

Social enterprises are a way for businesses to balance economics and social responsibility, said Stephen Moore, a UNC graduate student. Businesses still focus on making a profit but also use good social practices, like hiring hard-to-employ people.

Initial funding for the project would have to be donated or borrowed. However, the project would be able to earn most of its costs once it got started, said Aaron Nelson, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.

“There’s this new emerging sector of our economy, which are these organizations that have social purpose but earn their income,” Nelson said.

One of the most well-known social enterprises is Girl Scouts, which sells cookies instead of asking only for donations.

Chris Gergen is the executive director of Bull City Forward, an organization that supports social enterprises in Durham. He said believes a social enterprise service is feasible for Orange County but would be difficult.

“It’s a challenging economy, and this is a difficult work force to develop jobs for,” Gergen said.

Nelson teaches a graduate-level class at UNC’s Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building on social and sustainable enterprises on Monday nights. The first hour and a half of the class is open to the public, and this week Gergen will give a guest lecture on social enterprise.

Nelson said he doesn’t know how much a project in the county would cost, but he feels confident there is enough community interest to make it happen.

“Lots of the people we talk to are curious and optimistic, but there is certainly more work to be done,” he said.

Nelson approached The Siena Hotel and other local restaurants and hotels about setting up a possible social enterprise to handle their laundry but has not made any concrete plans.

Many of these businesses currently outsource their laundry to bigger cities like Greensboro and Charlotte, but Nelson said he believes these services can be provided within Chapel Hill, returning jobs to the area.

Anthony Carey, general manager of The Siena Hotel, said he is looking into programs through Extraordinary Ventures, a local nonprofit that employs the mentally disabled, but he would be interested in a social enterprise helping the homeless as well.

“Anything we can do to employ the homeless — to get them out of that situation — we definitely are a partner in the community for those kind of endeavors,” Carey said.

Molly De Marco, a contributor to the OrangePolitics blog who is interested in social justice, said she is still looking for more ideas to feed this project.

“We’re interested not in charity, but social change,” she said.

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