Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today presented groups in Hartford, Connecticut with $7.7 million in assistance under one program that sparks economic development of polluted industrial sites and will create 700 permanent jobs, and under another program that trains high school drop-outs for careers as construction workers.

"HUD is proud to stand as a partner with Hartford in helping to transform the city with new construction and in helping to transform the lives of Hartford residents with new jobs," Cuomo said. Speaking via TV satellite from Washington to a news conference in Hartford with Congresswoman Barbara Kennelly, Mayor Michael Peters and Congressman-elect John Larson, Cuomo said:

• Hartford will receive a $2 million Brownfields Economic Development Initiative Grant and $5 million in loan guarantees to support the development of Adriaen's Landing, a mixed-use complex with residential, recreational, entertainment, retail, parking, hotel and convention facilities. The complex will be located on the riverfront and is part of an overall master plan for Hartford's revitalization. HUD funds will be used to clean up pollution at the 9.6-acre site. When the entertainment and retail complex is developed, Hartford estimates that 700 permanent jobs will be created, along with 2,250 construction jobs. The total project costs of this phase is $101.6 million. HUD's brownfields program transforms polluted and abandoned commercial and industrial sites known as brownfields into productive businesses, housing and recreational developments. Brownfields include abandoned factories and other industrial facilities, gasoline stations, oil storage facilities, dry cleaning stores, and other businesses that dealt with polluting substances.
• Co-Opportunity, Inc. in Hartford will receive a $700,000 grant under HUD's Youthbuild program to provide 40 high school drop-outs on-the-job training by teaching them construction skills as they build two duplexes that will be house four homeless or other low-income families. HUD's investment in the Youthbuild program in Hartford will attract other investment from outside the Department of $1.3 million in cash and in-kind resources. In addition, the following groups are working on the project: Hartford Housing Authority, the Capitol Region Education Council, The Coalition to Strengthen the Sheldon/Charter Oak Neighborhood, Community Health Services, and the State of Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development.

"The brownfields assistance we're announcing today is an investment in a cleaner environment and a brighter future for Hartford," Cuomo said. "Around the nation, we are taking polluted sites once given up for dead and bringing them back to life. They will be reborn to provide new jobs for workers today and for our children tomorrow. Brownfields can be cleaned up, they can be made safe, and they can once again become powerful engines for job creation and economic growth."

"The Youthbuild Program helps high school drop-outs build new housing for families in need, while building new careers and new lives for themselves," Cuomo said. "With the construction and academic skills they learn in Youthbuild, young people can work their way out of poverty and support themselves for a lifetime."

Youthbuild participants - ranging in age from 16 to 24 - would have a hard time finding good jobs without the program, because they lack high school diplomas and job skills. Youthbuild helps the young people get general equivalency high school diplomas and provides social services and training in leadership skills, in addition to training as construction workers.

More than $170 million in grants have been made under Youthbuild since it began in 1993, enabling over 7,800 young people to take part in building or rehabilitating more than 3,650 affordable housing units in their communities.