NEW ORLEANS — A busy construction site near Martin Luther King Boulevard and South Liberty Street in the Central City neighborhood is special.
Not for the type of home that’s being built there, but for who’s building it and why.
“I’ve never done construction, so it was like a new experience,” New Harmony High School Student Leah Rose said.
Rose is one of 50 young people earning school credit and a paycheck and learning technical skills on the build.
“We learned safety,” Rose said. “We learned how to build. Learned how to swing a hammer. A lot of us did not know how.”
Uncommon Construction, a workforce development nonprofit, is the contractor on the job.
Founder Aaron Frumin said in addition to learning how to pick up a hammer, his apprentices are also picking up life skills.
“Things like showing up on time, working well on a team, looking for work when you’re done,” Frumin said. “These are the skills that are so essential to being successful in work and life.”
Past construction trainees have gone on to do good things.
"About half of them go to college,” Frumin said. “Half of them go to the workforce after graduation. Seventy-five percent or more are industry-bound in some way. Some of them are in architecture school, some of them are engineers.”
The community will benefit as well.
This home and another under construction around the corner are being developed by People’s Housing+.
They sit on property owned by a community land trust.
That means the purchase price will be more affordable because the homeowner is only buying the house, not the land.
“This is a house that will probably appraise anywhere between $280,000 and $300,000,” said Oji Alexander, CEO of People's Housing+. “The price to the buyer will be closer to $150,000.”
The lessons learned on the job are priceless.
“It’s a very fun experience except for when you like injure yourself,” Rose said. “I hit myself in the hand with a hammer.”
The new Central City homes are now expected to be completed next May.
