SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Two good samaritans are taking it upon themselves to make San Diego a cleaner place.
Steven Phong and Jose Cifuentes are hoping to make a difference by filling bag after bag of trash found along the streets and washes of San Diego.
"I didn't live right for most of my life. So I don't have too much time left in my life," Phong said. So, I'm going to give back to the community just because I didn't live right before."
Phong is a recovering addict. He started doing this while living in a sober living home.
He said getting rejected from jobs pushed him to want to give back -so he took to Nextdoor to get tips from the community.
"I've been through too much. This is not too dangerous for me. I've seen a lot worse. So, this is pretty much nothing," Phong said.
He's doing it alongside a friend he met on the road to recovery.
"It makes me feel like I have a purpose," Cifuentes said.
It's not their job to do this. It's typically the city's job.
"This only takes Jose and I typically two hours," Phong said.
Their hard work then turns into this - all the trash bagged up and ready to go to the dump. When they started, they were forking the bill themselves to do all of this. Now, they're asking for the community's help to help them complete their mission.
"We still need our own vehicle. We don't have that right now," Phong said. "So, I have all my tools and everything in my car."
Cifuentes' big goal is to secure money to make it a business and hire addicts in recovery.
"Because addicts have a lot to give. A lot of addicts in recovery- they're good. They're clean, but then when it comes, they can't find work," he said. "So I myself experienced that. I'm clean. I got rejected from jobs, and that is devastating to an addict."
You can donate to their mission on their GoFundMe.
