Dallas-based company offers more than meaningful employment

NORTH TEXAS — When it comes to finding a job, right now times are tough for some people. A local job seeker said it's even tougher when you're homeless. He's thankful for one new company that's giving him a chance.

Michael Sullick knows what it's like to battle homelessness. The 45-year-old Army veteran only recently found a place to call home through transitional housing.

"I call myself a victim of circumstance," Sullick said. "Back when COVID hit, my mom was one of the first COVID casualties and unbeknown to me she had a reverse mortgage on the house for a very large sum of money that I could not pay off. I had to sell the house in order to pay off the reverse mortgage."

He said the situation eventually forced him to live in his truck, which he sold when he was unable to find a job during the pandemic.

"The struggle was real," he said.

He found himself on the streets, which he said made him unsuitable for hiring. Then he found Junk Hustlers.

"Junk Hustlers... it's kind of self-explanatory you know.. if you have junk that you need gone, we show up and go what do you want out of there and we get rid of it," he said.

Junk Hustlers was launched by Dallas-based Cornbread Hustle, a staffing agency that offers second chances.

"People coming out of prison or people in recovery or people in transition find meaningful employment," founder and CEO Cheri Garcia said. "We reverse engineer their ultimate goals, look at the barriers that they're facing and try to find the right fit for them."

Since 2016, her company has helped more than 2,500 people find employment.

Garcia herself has struggled with addiction and knows how life-changing a second chance can be.

She said she put $100,000 of her own money into launching Junk Hustlers.

"This year we have had a difficult time finding employers who are hiring," she said. "Staffing is just low and so I decided to invest my own money into Junk Hustlers. It uses our placement agency to place people. It's powered by the placement agency, so we're able to take matters into our own hands and hire people quickly."

She knows the difference it can make.

"I actually had to walk the walk and see the barriers that the very people I'm serving have to face," she said. "For me, it's a true passion to watch somebody transform from hitting their lowest point to finding passion in their work."

Sullick knows those struggles as well.

"Tomorrow, it's a half-hour walk to the bus stop and then I have to take three buses that will take me about two hours," he said.

The job pays around $17 an hour, more than double the minimum wage. It's allowed him to afford his $150 a month rent the transitional housing requires. He believes long term, this job will be able to change the trajectory of his life.

"It's awesome," he said. "I wake up every day and I have a purpose now. Whereas before it was just... I hated life."

He's thankful to be moving in the right direction.