Providence Youths Learn Job Skills Renovating Apartments

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, July 17, 2011

By Christine Dunn

Journal Staff Writer

On Olmsted Way, a short street across from the Wanskuck Mill on Charles Street, 10 graduates of the YouthBuild Providence program are at work this summer, renovating 24 apartments in two buildings at the Olmsted Gardens affordable-housing complex.

On Wednesday, the YouthBuild graduates were at work on the exterior of building 2, power washing, scraping and repainting the exterior. TheYouthBuild team included Miguel Xiloj, 18, and Karan Sok, 25.

Later on, the graduates will proceed to the interior work, replacing kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities and reglazing bathtubs, according to construction manager Samson Marques. In addition, leaking skylights in the building’s roof will be closed.

Marques said the goal is to finish the interior work in two apartments a day. The entire renovation project should be completed by the end of September, he said.

In the YouthBuild Providence program, http://www.youthbuildprov.org, part of the national YouthBuild network, low-income youths ages 16 to 24 work to earn their GEDs or high school diplomas while also learning job skills by building affordable housing. Marques said the 10-month educational program includes alternating weeks of classroom work and on-the-job training.

YouthBuild also employs graduates of its program in its building projects.

Xiloj said he heard about YouthBuild from his cousin, and he immediately “liked what they offered me.”

The $200,000 Olmsted Gardens renovation project is a partnership between YouthBuild and the owners of Olmsted Gardens, The Community Builders ( http://www.tcbinc.org), a nonprofit developer.

Federal grants that may be used for other affordable-housing projects were announced on Tuesday, when HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan awarded more than $12.6 million to public housing authorities in Rhode Island.

The grants were made as part of HUD’s Capital Fund Program, which pays to build, repair, renovate or modernize public housing.

The money was disbursed as follows:

• Bristol Housing Authority, $198,884

• Burrillville Housing Authority, $95,617

• Central Falls Housing Authority $374,584

• Coventry Housing Authority, $209,733

• Cranston Housing Authority, $637,544

• Cumberland Housing Authority, $162,288

• East Greenwich Housing Authority, $35,988

• East Providence Housing Authority, $493,502

• Housing Authority of the City of Pawtucket, $1,361,500

• Jamestown Housing Authority, $31,841

• Johnston Housing Authority, $183,218

• Lincoln Housing Authority, $272,199

• Narragansett Housing Authority, $15,647

• North Providence Housing Authority, $130,088

• Portsmouth Housing Authority, $40,353

• Providence Housing Authority, $3,544,262

• Smithfield Housing Authority, $54,463

• South Kingstown Housing Authority, $115,007

• The Housing Authority of the City of Newport, $1,752,584

• Tiverton Housing Authority, $47,957

• Warren Housing Authority, $152,754

• Warwick Housing Authority, $499,866

• West Warwick Housing Authority, $238,128

• Westerly Housing Authority, $132,069

• Woonsocket Housing Authority, $1,911,442

Full article available here http://www.projo.com/projohomes/content/YouthBuild_Wanskuck_07-17-11_7CP5C94_v16.5d288.html

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Providence Youths Learn Job Skills Renovating Apartments