The Adams Morgan area, known for its raucous bar scene and ethnic restaurants has even greater appeal these days with the help of a crew of men in blue, who are also helping themselves get out of homelessness and into the job market.

Since April, this band of four men donning blue T-shirts and dragging wheeled trash bins has been scouring 18th Street, Columbia Road and surrounding side streets in Northwest Washington for cigarette butts, greasy pizza plates and empty cans tossed aside by late-night visitors.

One of the men, Isaac Davis, defines the work as “detailing,’’ a thorough daily cleaning the city can’t afford to provide.

“Their needs are taken care of,” said case manager Antonio Otero.

Davis, who has been in and out of prison for nearly 25 years, said he has been offered financial and housing assistance by his family, but “I want my own.” The program gives him just that.

After nine months, the men are encouraged, with the help of counselors and mentors, to begin looking for housing and employment. By then, they will have saved money to support themselves during their re-entry and will have been drug and alcohol-free.

“Some of them are on a see-saw,’’ Otero said. ``This gives them the ability to do well.”

Ready to Work began in 2003 with help from a New York City-based group, Ready Willing and Able. The program teamed up with the D.C. Neighborhood Business Improvement Districts (BID), which now provide funding for the effort.

The BID/Ready to Work partnership started on Capitol Hill where there are now has 10 men working seven days a week. This was followed by Mount Vernon, which now has two men seven days a week, and most recently Adams Morgan.

Last March, the partnership held its first graduation, at which six men re-entered the community, all with housing and employment.

“You see the broken-hearted when they come in, and when they come out, they are healed,” Otero said.

Otero has experienced drug addiction and homelessness himself, as have some of the on-site supervisors who are graduates of the program. “There’s a lot of stuff I can draw from,” Otero said.

“It gives me a better understanding” of the men, and in turn “they feel they have a connection” with me, he added.

Otero said his experience has enabled him to know when an addict is manipulating him. “I don’t accept nothing but the truth.”

According to BID director Josh Gibson, the Ready to Work crew collected 8,991 bags of trash, or approximately 269,730 tons, between April and September.

The workers’ contribution was especially visible one holiday when the crew wasn’t scheduled to work, Gibson said. The trash that accumulated that one day “made me realize how profound an impact” the men have.

The response from business owners and community members alike has been “monumentally positive,” Gibson said, and he is pleased the collaboration can help both the community and the men who are seeking a second chance.

“It’s really a win-win,” he added. “This program helps make the point that the bulk of the homeless population could become contributing members of society if they had access to the right services.”