The Palo Alto Downtown Streets Team is many things to many people: A second chance for someone down on their luck, a guarantee of clean sidewalks for a business owner, an elegant solution to homelessness for an elected official.

A charity, however, it is not.

"We give a hand up, not a handout," program operations manager Chris Richardson said pointedly during a recent interview.

Since its humble beginnings in 2005 as a $45,000 program designed to move homeless men and women into permanent housing and jobs, the Downtown Streets Team has bloomed into a nonprofit company with an annual operating budget of nearly $1.3 million. And it shows no signs of slowing.

A second team is operating in San Jose and "franchises" have sprouted in the south part of that city, Gilroy and Daytona Beach, Fla. Santa Barbara is poised to join that list soon. Meanwhile, interest is pouring in from around the country, from Oregon to New Jersey to Tennessee.

"We've created a lot of national buzz," said Richardson.

The model is basic. Men and women ready to leave the streets behind agree to work 20 hours a week -- sweeping city sidewalks and parking lots, for example -- in exchange for shelter and meals. Along the way, they acquire job and life skills, as well as rediscover their self-worth, Richardson said.

"Once they get to the point where they feel good about themselves and want to make a change, we don't hold them back," he said. "We can't."

To date, more than 100 participants have found part-time and full-time jobs; hundreds have been placed in temporary positions, according to Richardson. A total of 98 have found permanent housing.

Between the Palo Alto and San Jose Downtown Streets Teams, roughly 70 people are enrolled at any one time, Richardson said. The organization doesn't recruit because the waiting list is already long enough.

The Downtown Streets Team counts on traditional foundations and donors for just 30 percent of its budget, said Richardson, adding that the goal is to be 86 percent self-sufficient by 2014.

"We realize we cannot fund this through donations alone and have the impact we want to make," he said.

Developer Roxy Rapp said the Downtown Streets Teams has achieved its initial goals of cleaning up downtown Palo Alto and reducing homelessness. Both were a major concern for businesses surveyed in 2004.

"We still have homeless, but I don't think it's as bad as it was. The panhandling doesn't seem as bad as it was," said Rapp, adding that he has backed the organization since its inception.

Mayor Sidney Espinosa said the Downtown Streets Team has figured heavily into the city's efforts to address homelessness. The city council provided $25,000 of its starting budget.

"On all points, it's been a huge success," Espinosa said. "It was envisioned as a win-win-win for the businesses, the city and the homeless. And I think it's still that win-win-win today."

About one in six Gunn or Palo Alto high school graduates goes directly to Foothill or De Anza community college, according to the college chancellor.

Linda Thor, chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, spoke at a reception Sunday at the Palo Alto home of Elaine Andersen, a member of a Foothill College "friends" group.

Sunday's reception drew several dozen PTA and other community leaders, including Palo Alto school board member Barbara Klausner, Palo Alto Mayor Sid Espinosa, City Council member Pat Burt and State Sen. Joe Simitian.

In the fall of 2009, about 18 percent of Paly and Gunn graduates entered Foothill or De Anza, and the rate over the past decade has ranged between 13 percent and 19 percent, Thor said.

According to Foothill statistics, about 80 percent of Palo Alto students meet their goals of completing preparation for transfer or successfully transferring to a four-year university.

Between 2004 and 2009, Palo Alto students attending Foothill or De Anza transferred to about 95 different four-year institutions, including every University of California campus, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Mount Holyoke, Northeastern, Occidental, the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California and Yale, Thor said.

Foothill-De Anza students ranked No. 1 among 72 community colleges in California for UC transfers in 2010, Thor said.

The colleges' Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) program guarantees Foothill or De Anza students admission as juniors to certain UC or other campuses if they meet agreed-upon grade and course requirements.

Foothill and De Anza have TAG agreements with UC campuses at Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, as well as with some private universities, including Cornell, Thor said.

UCLA and Berkeley do not have TAG agreements with any college. However, Foothill has a "special transfer relationship" with UCLA called the Transfer Alliance Program. It does not guarantee admission, but in 2010 more than 80 percent of the Foothill honors students who used the program were admitted to UCLA, Thor said.

Andersen, the hostess of Sunday's event, is a member of the Foothill Commission, a group dedicated to promoting and raising funds for the school in the community. She received an associate's degree from Foothill in 1969 before earning her bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees from Stanford University. She is a professor of linguistics and neuroscience at the University of Southern California.