Effort to get squeegee workers off the streets of Baltimore is complicated

By Jayne Miller

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    BALTIMORE (WBAL) — One thing sure to spark heated debate about Baltimore City is the presence of so-called squeegee workers on street corners.

They are mostly young people asking for money to clean car windshields. The workers are blamed for keeping people out of downtown while the city gets blamed for doing nothing about it.

But that’s not quite true.

For Sieed Olu, it’s work — standing on a Baltimore corner, asking people for money to clean a windshield.

“It’s just like if somebody else was selling buttons or shirts out of their house, it’s just another form of job. It’s a job. It’s another way to get money. It’s how the world works. It’s all about the cash flow,” Olu said.

Squeegee workers are not new to Baltimore. Young people have been practicing it for decades. What is new is the young people who populate 22 corners in Baltimore are, in large number, known by name to the city and part of a concerted effort to move them to a more stable life.

“The plan is working. But the plan is very intentional and very intensive, and it is going to take some time to have that meaningful impact and get as many young people off the corner as possible,” said Faith Leach, deputy mayor of Equity, Health and Human Services.

Put in place in 2019, the effort depends heavily on the use of mentors.

“Our goal is to change one at a time. We are trying to change the narrative about young African American men trying to make it,” mentor Earl Young said.

“I ain’t really had it like this before. It shows you and builds you up and tells up, ‘OK, I don’t gotta keep doing the wrong things because someone is in my corner to help me out,'” Olu said.

“We answer the phone 1, 2, 3 o’clock in the morning, well after work. If I get off at 5 o’clock, I am still working, 10 p.m. at night,” mentor supervisor Vernon Horton said.

“I ended up getting shot at 18. I am in the hospital, and when the police left the room, you know what I told them to do? I said, ‘Can you please find my mentors? I need them right now,'” former squeegee worker Kevon Thomas said.

The challenges are steep.

“I have encountered young men in conversation, in engaging them with tears in their eyes. They will tell me, ‘Mr. Vernon, we don’t have anything to eat.’ It doesn’t get any more real than that,” Horton said.

“I was homeless for about a month. Two months,” Olu said.

“I really don’t have a strong relationship with my family, so I can’t ask them for a dollar. So, I had no other choice,” former squeegee worker Trentaz Adams-Boone said.

“People that squeegee know that they are worth. We make $200 to $300 a day. You are not going to make that in any other job. Not entry-level,” Olu said.

“We have young boys and a few young ladies on the corners who are in desperate need of assistance and guidance,” said Dr. Andrey Bundley, director of African American Male Engagement.

Public scorn of the young people can be intense. Recently, former Baltimore County Sen. Jim Brochin, D-District 42, called for county residents to boycott the city until the squeegee workers are cleared from the corners.

“It causes so much anxiety for my former constituents and people in Baltimore County that happen to go on (Interstate) 83 to get into the city,” Brochin told Peter Schmuck on WBAL NewsRadio.

“These young people present with any number of challenges. We can’t go out and pull all of the young people off the corner. We have to tailor our approach to meet their very specialized needs,” Leach said.

“Much of the issue is about that a Black boy who doesn’t comport himself in the manner in which he should. When in fact, we have youngsters who are squeegee-ing who are really begging, right? And then we have the ones who are really working. And the ones who are really working rarely has an issue with a driver. Because that issue stops them from getting money. The one who is begging becomes frustrated and that is usually the individual who has an issue,” Bundley said.

Since August, 39 squeegee workers have received full-time jobs through the city’s program. Thomas now works for the Baltimore City Department of Public Works. Adams-Boone works as a security officer at a hospital.

The city is now upping its game with a new part of its plan that will increase outreach and put traffic control officers at corners that squeegee workers use. But city officials say there is no instant fix.

“The goal is to fix the systems that have failed our young people and led them to squeegee-ing. Before a person gets to the corner, there have been so many systems that have failed them,” Leach said.

For all the attention paid, the young people who squeegee on the corners are just a very small percentage of a huge overall problem. According to the city, as many as 20,000 young people are disconnected from school or work.

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