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Could key to cleaning up cities be paying homeless to gather trash?

FILE PHOTO: A man carries a sign reading "I'm homeless, don't take my health too!" before a health care rally at Thomas Paine Plaza on February 25, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

PHILADELPHIA — To some Philadelphia looks like a mess, with trash littering the city.

At the same time, homelessness plagues the city which bills itself as “The City of Brotherly Love.”

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But could the homeless population hold the solution to a city that’s filling with litter?

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WTXF has reported that there are about 5,700 homeless people living in Philadelphia, and paying them an hourly wage could help not only clean up trash, but also help make a dent in the homeless population.

The city is considering a similar program and told WTXF that there could be a pilot program introduced in the future.

A similar program, that is the inspiration of the WTXF report, is currently run in Texas.

It’s called the Clean Slate Program and is run by the Presbyterian Night Shelter.

Through the program, the city employs a crew of homeless people for litter pickup, They're paid $10 an hour to clean up garbage in the southeast area of downtown Fort Worth, KXAS reported.

Workers also get paid vacation and benefits for their efforts.

The city made an investment of about $48,000 in the program last year and hopes to expand it this year..

In 2017, 40 homeless people were hired and they cleaned up 3,856 tons of trash, KXAS reported.