There are incentives to hire former military, and other sub sets of society and Amazon tracks and collects on all of them. Incentivizing companies to hire homeless people seems like something everyone on both sides would have a hard time not agreeing to. And seems like it might be more effective the other Solutions I've heard proposed in Seattle.
You’re making an assumption that homeless are all unemployed. Those that are employable generally work but can’t afford housing, have criminal records, or don’t have good credit and can’t get standard housing. Many other homeless are unemployable due to mental health issues or addictions.
Both proposals tax employment.
The other statuses are generally a verifiable and more permanent thing. Homelessness isn’t.
It's pretty verifiable. If somebody is regularly sleeping in a homeless shelter it's a pretty good bet that they are homeless. The shelter can provide the referral that earns the tax credit.
I’ve worked with homeless men. In seattle, the major issue is finding shelter. We don’t have enough of it for men especially, and many of the rules around them can make it very difficult to both work and use the shelter. A really common place is a car if they can afford one
Companies hire based on skill
But if you provide a tax incentive that can help people gain skills. Seattle has a $15 minimum wage. If you have an individual who is only worth $12 per hour but a $4/hr tax break it's profitable to hire them, and hopefully the work experience they gain will help then become a $15/hr employee who can go on to jobs that don't have the incentive.
Hire on merit! I’m not saying the homeless aren’t skilled. Perhaps the effort should be towards a career fair where they could be assisted in setting up a resume and a meeting with a prospective employer. The tax incentive encourages homelessness.
Some jobs don't require too much skill though.
Spoken like a true tech worker 😄 And yet they put experience on their resume because you can gauge if a person is smart enough to fit the needs. Waiting tables is not a high skill job and yet no one would hire you to wait tables at a high end restaurant. Why?