The executive director for Habitat for Humanity says a new pilot project with CityHousing Hamilton is offering a unique opportunity for a number of high school students to learn while refurbishing rental units under city management.
Sean Ferris says the initiative has completed one housing unit in the win-win scenario with two more under construction now with similar builds expected in the near future.
“This is a great opportunity with city housing instead of having the students do busy work building picnic tables and so on,” Ferris said.
Habitat has had a long-term partnership with city school boards to engage secondary students in “living classrooms” allowing for the use of tools to learn “soft” trades.
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For their participation, the students earn high school credits in the program through the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program.
“Obviously with students, we don’t have them working on things like regulated trades,” Ferris said.
“So … it’s drywall, it’s trim, it’s painting, general cleaning and repair of cabinetry and things of that nature.”
The partnership addresses a pair of needs, safe and affordable housing while engaging youth in construction and rehabilitation activities, under trained supervision.
“As much as they love getting their hands dirty and learning new things, the added value of helping the community and providing affordable homeownership is really a benefit to them and they really appreciate it, are motivated by it,” according to Ferris.
Homes in the area of Barton Street East and Red Hill Valley Parkway are where the students have been put to work.
The partnership has obvious benefits with the renovations being completed at significant cost reductions.
Work on the first unit was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.
The units are owned and operated by CityHousing Hamilton and are geared-to-income housing for families in need.
“From the housing side, our collaboration will help put family units back online as quickly and efficiently as possible, while providing our local youth the chance to gain hands-on training and experience in real-life settings,” said Brian Kinaschuk, manager of maintenance at CityHousing Hamilton, in a statement.
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