Growing bike rack business run by homeless men [Cleveland.com]

John Handyside runs a drill press in the bike rack-making shop at the men's homeless shelter on Lakeside Avenue. Handyside lives in the shelter and is paid minimum wage. He says the work gives him training and helps to build his resume.

Gus Chan, The Plain DealerCLEVELAND, Ohio -- Shopping for bicycle racks a few years ago, the city had to spend its money out of state because no machine shop in this old smokestack town made them.

But now Metro Metal Works, a program of Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, is cranking out bike racks at the Lakeside men's homeless shelter, hiring people on the skids who need money and job training. Some are homeless. Some are just out of prison.

"This allows us to show that we have current employment," said John Handyside, a homeless man working a pipe-bending machine in the rack shop. "And that makes it easier to find a better-paying job."

Handyside lives in the shelter, earns minimum wage and pays child support. "This also keeps me out of trouble," he said.

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