Rebuilding a Neighborhood, Rebuilding the Workforce

Baltimore, MD

Rebuilding a neighborhood devastated by the housing crisis means rebuilding its workforce as well. The Recovery Act is working with local non-profits and small businesses to create jobs for the people of Baltimore. It is creating jobs for people like Omar Livingston.

Omar is a graduate of the Baltimore Jumpstart program, run by the Job Opportunities Task Force. They have provided Omar with 13 weeks of classroom instruction, math classes focusing on the construction industry, and hands on carpentry training. With the new skills he learned in Jumpstart, C.L. McCoy Framing gave him a job. Omar is working as a general laborer on the City Arts project in the Station North. This approximately $13 million dollar project was stalled due to the housing crisis, but thanks to the Recovery Act and $2.6 million in TCAP funds, the project is in progress again and Omar is going to work.

Being a general laborer is hard work, but for Omar it's just the first step in a new career. With the experience he will gain working at City Arts he will be eligible to become an apprentice carpenter, and eventually earn his carpenter's license. The Recovery Act isn't just giving Omar a job, it's helping him start a career.

Of course, Omar isn't the only one working on the City Arts project. Recovery Act dollars are helping established small businesses across the city. Times were hard for M&N Professional Concrete Construction. The credit crisis meant no major projects were being built. M&N was about to shut down and lay off the entire crew. The Recovery Act jumpstarted construction at City Arts just in time. The $200,000 concrete subcontract is enough to keep the doors open at M&N and keep their crew hard at work. Now instead of applying for unemployment, they are hard at work turning a vacant lot into affordable housing and an anchor for neighborhood revitalization.