A new program in central Iowa will train people for a trade apprenticeship and preserve low-income homes.
Participants in the Work that Improves Housing program will go through residential and commercial training in construction.
They’ll spend four months doing tasks like repairing low-income homes and doing commercial training in carpentry or electrical work.
Julian Neely, from the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, says the program is unique because it prioritizes adults.
“What are some gaps,” Neely says, “and what we saw was adults and so this is an opportunity for adults to make that transition, that leap, that career change.”
Participants also get paid for the program. Neely says usually people pay to do a pre-apprenticeship, so this option is more accessible. The program includes apprenticeship readiness by repairing lower income homes in select Des Moines neighborhoods. Neely says he intentionally chose those areas.
“We are driving resources to underserved neighborhoods,” he says, “or neighborhoods that might just need a little bit more investment.”
Neely says he wanted to find a way to remove barriers for workforce development, and improve lower income housing in the area. At least 26 people have applied for the program, and the application deadline is tomorrow.
(By Maura Curran, Iowa Public Radio)