WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today awarded $39.1 million in grants to train about 2,000 young high school drop-outs to build and renovate low-income housing so they can begin new careers as construction workers.

The 87 local governments, housing authorities and non-profit groups receiving grants under the Youthbuild Program are located in 35 states and the District of Columbia. They will give young people ages 16 to 24 on-the-job training through building and renovating more than 900 units of affordable housing for homeless people and other low-income families. A total of 234 applicants around the country competed for the grants.

Youthbuild also provides academic training that helps young people get general equivalency high school diplomas, and provides social services and training in leadership skills.

"Youthbuild shows young people how to build new homes for people in need, and new lives for themselves," Cuomo said. "This program unlocks the door to success and a good job for young people left behind."

Youthbuild participants would have a hard time finding good jobs without the program, because they would lack high school diplomas and job skills.

HUD's investment in the program nationwide this year will attract other investment from outside the Department of $32.5 million in cash and in-kind resources.

Because Youthbuild has been so successful, President Clinton requested $75 million for the program for Fiscal Year 2000. Both the House and Senate cut this to $42.5 million in the budgets each approved. The HUD budget bill is now before a conference committee.

More than $200 million in grants have been made under Youthbuild since it began in 1993, enabling more than 11,000 young people to take part in building or rehabilitating more than 7,000 affordable housing units in their communities.

Content Archived: January 20, 2009