The city of Winnipeg is launching a pilot project that aims to give homeless people a chance to go from living on the streets to cleaning them as a first step towards getting back into the workforce.

Besides putting its participants to work, the program helps them battle any addictions and find permanent housing.

Larry Demarais is one of the six people chosen to take part. He lived among the estimated 300 homeless on Winnipeg's Main Street for two years. "I was panhandling, and I was selling and smoking drugs at the time," Demarais told CTV News.

Now he's starting to clean his life up by cleaning the streets.

The city is paying the homeless workers minimum wage to pick up garbage, clean bus shelters, sweep sidewalks and shovel snow for up to 20 hours a week.

Similar programs have been successful in Baltimore, Maryland, and Kenora, Ont. While many support the project, some experts warn that it won't work for everyone, given that many homeless people have both mental and physical health problems.

"We don't have to have a bunch of false expectations saying everybody can work, everybody can have their lives improved, everybody can pick up a broom and clean the street because that's not going to happen," urban expert Jino Distasio told CTV News.

Despite this expert pessimism, Demarais believes the opportunity is helping him.

"I felt that there was no hope for my life, but now I'm looking at this thinking there is some kind of hope," he said.

With a report from CTV's Jill Macyshon