CCC is proud to partner with the City of Portland’s Public Environment Management Office (PEMO) on a growing sidewalk cleaning initiative that is improving public spaces across Portland while creating paid employment opportunities for people rebuilding their lives.
This collaboration brings together the City’s coordinated approach to public space management and CCC’s Clean Start program, delivering visible, on-the-ground impact for neighborhoods, businesses, and people across the city.
At the Heart of the Work
What is Clean Start?
Established in 1996, Clean Start is CCC’s homeless-to-work employment program, providing paid, transitional jobs that support recovery from homelessness while helping maintain clean, safe public spaces across Portland.
Clean Start crew members remove trash, graffiti, needles, and biohazards throughout the metro region while building job skills, confidence, and stability with access to CCC’s wraparound services.
What is PEMO?
PEMO is part of Portland Solutions and coordinates City programs and services that address livability challenges in public spaces across Portland.
By streamlining City resources and working closely with community partners, PEMO focuses on improving sidewalks, streets, parks, and business corridors through cleaning, beautification, and infrastructure efforts that promote public safety, economic vitality, and community use.
What This Collaboration Means for Portland
Clean, well-maintained sidewalks are essential to a healthy city. They support public safety and accessibility, encourage economic activity, and help create neighborhoods that feel welcoming and cared for. For small businesses and residents alike, consistent sidewalk cleaning makes a visible difference in how public spaces are experienced.
The collaboration also supports more jobs.
The new contract with PEMO has allowed CCC to expand its workforce. Justin Wnuck, the supervisor on the CCC PEMO contract with CCC, explains. “With this expansion, we’ve hired 15 brand new full-time positions. It’s amazing to see the look on their faces to be self-sufficient and buy something for themselves,” said Wnuck. “They take pride in the work they do, they take pride in the people they are.”
Through this partnership, Clean Start crews now provide basic sidewalk cleaning services along major business corridors and other high-use areas across Portland. Crews sweep sidewalks, remove graffiti, collect litter, clean biohazards, and pressure wash surfaces, adjusting frequency based on neighborhood need.
The work supports safer, cleaner, and more welcoming public spaces while advancing the City’s commitment to inclusive economic opportunity. These contracts directly fund paid employment for people who are rebuilding stability, creating a model where public investment improves both the physical environment and individual pathways forward.
In Portland’s central city, crews travel their routes on bright pink tricycles built by Icicle Tricycles, making it easier to navigate dense, high-foot-traffic areas. In other parts of the city, crews operate electric vehicles, also built by Icicle Tricycles, with the same pink accent to cover longer corridors and higher volumes of debris. This flexible approach allows teams to respond efficiently while maintaining a consistent presence in the places people use most.
Early results have shown tangible benefits for neighborhoods and businesses, reinforcing the value of consistent, visible care in shared public spaces. Between November and December 2025, in the Pearl/Stadium district alone, 30,295 pounds of trash were collected.
“ATC Body Shop sent us a lovely note a couple of weeks ago that they had already seen a drastic improvement in appearance,” says Dr. Robert Layne, Senior Communications Strategist for Portland Solutions. “They relayed to us that since Oct. 1, they’ve already seen a 28% increase in business at their particular site, and they attribute some of that, quite a bit of that in fact, to this particular program,” said Layne.
A Shared Commitment to Community
This collaboration reflects a shared belief that clean, accessible public spaces and meaningful employment are essential to a healthy city. By combining Clean Start’s employment model with PEMO’s citywide coordination, Portland is advancing solutions that support economic development, opportunity, and community pride.
As the program continues to grow, CCC remains committed to working alongside the City and community partners to improve public spaces while creating pathways to stability for the people who do this important work every day.
