Written by: Vandita
New Beginnings of Tampa, one of Florida’s largest homeless programs, has found itself embroiled in controversy after a Tampa Bay Times report accused its CEO Tom Atchison of forcing the homeless people work as indentured servants at local events including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay Rays baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
In exchange for food and shelter, Atchison’s charity exploits the recovering alcoholics and drug addicts as unpaid labour in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant writing.
Apparently, those who reject to be part of this illegal practice are charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
Some of the participants of New Beginnings’ work therapy program work at concession stands but they are unaware of how much they are being paid for their labour as the money they make goes to New Beginnings of Tampa.
Interestingly, businesses give donations to the charity in exchange for workers sent to games. Tampa Bay Lightning, a hockey team in February 2013, donated $50,000 to the charity.
In order to compensate labour with food and shelter, charities are required to show that the workers are being compensated with services that are equal to what they’d earn with the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. Shockingly, Atchison does not document hours worked raising doubts that the workers could be overworked and underpaid.
The investigation into New Beginnings public records revealed that the charity does not have clinically trained personnel to work with addicts or the mentally ill while it claims to provide counselling to its homeless.
In addition, Tom Atchison reportedly took residents’ Social Security checks and food stamps even if they amounted to more than residents owed in program costs. He didn’t return the difference.
A New Beginnings contractor told the investigators that he overbilled the state for at least $80,000 of grant money, and then gave the money to the work therapy program instead of returning it.
“This is outrageous,” said Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel for the National Employment Law Project. “These workers are doing a job. They need to be treated with dignity.”
A livid Florida county commissioner Kevin Beckner said he would contact local lawmakers to initiate investigation in this ‘practice of legal human trafficking’.
Legal or not, New Beginnings’ work therapy does raise ethical questions.
should businesses like New Beginnings really be stealing the wages of the destitute? http://t.co/Agq3yBZSgZ
— Scott Esposito (@ScottEsposito) 2. Dezember 2014
should businesses like New Beginnings really be stealing the wages of the destitute? http://t.co/Agq3yBZSgZ
— Scott Esposito (@ScottEsposito) 2. Dezember 2014
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