Create Affordable Housing by Training New Tradespeople
From "Share Your Policy Ideas"
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St. Louis has a well known issue with problem properties owned by absentee owners who either lack the interest or funds to return them to our housing stock.
By investing in training people, especially marginalized groups like the homeless, LGBT+ people, and women in trades like masonry, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and painting, the City could restore both LRA-owned housing and problem properties to the housing stock, while creating a long-term income stream for the City by renting out the housing units at sub-market rates.
This would bolster the local economy in the short term through supplies, increase the tax base by giving people who might otherwise be unemployed or have entry-level jobs the skills to obtain high-paying jobs in the private construction sector, and increase community confidence both in the City and their streets, with safe, historic housing taking the place of derelict buildings.
A pilot program could be established with a class of 30 or so individuals being trained on the job to restore any given 4-family house in the LRA’s portfolio. This would account for any turnover in the program and ensure that there is an adequate number of trainees for each trade.
