Select Projects
Hartford, CT
In 1998, ILSR met with the Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to explain how programs like
HUD's Hope VI (which provides hundreds of millions of dollars annually
to demolish buildings) could use deconstruction to renovate public housing
in an environmentally-sound manner, while helping HUD meet its Section
3 (community investment) obligations. At HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo's
urging, ILSR implemented a pilot project to demonstrate the viability
of deconstruction
ILSR worked with the Hartford Housing
Authority (HHA) and Manafort Brothers, Inc., a local construction and
demolition (C&D) enterprise, to deconstruct six units of the Stowe Village
Public Housing Complex. HHA provided $50,000 above traditional demolition
costs in order to support this deconstruction training program. The
returns were extraordinary. Nine worker-trainees were drawn from Hartford
public housing; some had grown up in the very units they were deconstructing.
Training, conducted by the Local 230 of the Laborers International Union
and ILSR, was completed in six weeks, by which time the project had:
- deconstructed 6 units (8,250 square feet) at Stowe Village
- recovered and found markets for all recovered materials, generating
$9,000 in sales
- trained workers for thousands less than the HUD-approved training
costs
- forged alliances among the public and private sectors and national
and local unions
- established a 51% worker-owned deconstruction enterprise (the Hartford
Community Deconstruction Service Company)
- placed public housing residents in new, permanent, full-time, family-wage
jobs
- created home ownership opportunities for low-income families residents
- reunited families through HHA's award-winning Family Reunification
Program.
In addition to the direct benefits to
the city of Hartford and the residents of Stowe Village, the project
proved that deconstruction can be a viable complement or alternative
to demolition (in this case costing 33% less than demolition), while
creating new jobs and attracting new businesses and investment.
For a printable summary of the accomplishments
of the Hartford project, please see Deconstruction
at Work.
Washington, DC
In 2002, ILSR inaugurated its Washington,
DC deconstruction training program at the Stanton Dwellings public housing
complex, working closely with the DC Housing Authority and Just U Wait'N
See CDC (JUWNS), a community development corporation serving the residents
of the Stanton community.
ILSR provided screening and training
guidelines to JUWNS to facilitate the selection, interview, testing,
and hiring of trainees. Classroom style and hands-on training were begun
in January 2002, and by March we had trained and employed 48 former
public housing residents. Recovery rates ranged from 50-85% (depending
on the condition of the buildings). Many of our trainees have now moved
into full-time construction jobs off-site, and ILSR is coordinating
with local unions and construction companies to place other trainees
in permanent positions once the Stanton project is completed. In addition,
some graduates have begun purchasing new homes being built on the Stanton
site, translating their training into real investment.
Check
Out Material for Sale
Project Updates: Photographs
Springfield, MA
Pioneer Valley Project, a community
corporation that focuses on job creation, asked ILSR to help establish
a deconstruction enterprise in its community. Through a hands-on technical
assistance program, ILSR offered both management and service crew training
to five workers. One moved into a full-time jobs in the construction
trades, and three others are working at PVP's resale business, which
markets materials recovered from local deconstruction projects. Pioneer
Valley has since garnered new contracts, and has made the training program
a permanent part of its operations.
Portland, OR
ILSR developed training strategies and
opportunities to strengthen DeConstruction Service's existing workforce,
enabling the company to expand to meet the growing needs of the region.
Much of the training was conducted in Washington, DC, where DeConstruction
Service's staff worked on the Stanton Dwelling project (see below).
With hands-on management training, and experience on projects that vary
greatly in scope and style (from single family homes to large public
housing complexes), the Portland crews are now ready to develop and
conduct their own training programs both locally and regionally.
Portland also was the site of ILSR's
first Deconstruction Training Conference, held in September 2001 in
conjunction with the Used Building Materials Association (UBMA) "Harvesting
the Future" Conference. More than 150 practitioners attended the event,
which gave community development organizations an opportunity to meet
technical assistance providers and professionals in the fields of deconstruction
and materials reuse. In addition to offering training workshops, ILSR
staff held one-on-one meetings with community development organizations,
providing recommendations on topics from business organization to identifying
start-up capital, and distributed copies of our deconstruction training
manual, hailed as a critical resource for fledgling companies. For more
information on this and other conferences, please see our Deconstruction
Conferences page
Roseburg, Oregon
ILSR helped the Umpqua County Community
Development Corporation (UCCDC) prepare a successful application to
HHS, providing funds to create 13 new jobs in deconstruction over three
years. (Six low-income workers already have been trained and employed
at this writing.) Once funds were awarded, we helped train UCCDC staff,
primarily in business management and development to facilitate the establishment
of a deconstruction service enterprise. ILSR staff worked with UCCDC
principal Mickey Beach to draft a bid for the operation's first deconstruction
project, and offered technical advice on take-down methods. We also
helped draft a business plan for retail sales operation that markets
building materials recovered from area deconstruction projects. Both
the sales enterprise already is making a profit, as is the service operation,
which anticipates receiving two new contracts next month.
Tacoma, WA
ILSR worked directly with the Metropolitan
Development Corporation (MDC), a well-established community development
corporation that provides job training in a host of areas, and wanted
to expand into deconstruction services and retail sale of materials
recovered from these projects. We helped MDC draft a successful application
for a Jobs for Low-Income Individuals (JOLI) grant from the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS). After the grant was awarded, we
trained seven workers in Portland, OR, with the assistance of DeConstruction
Services. In addition to classroom style training (including a review
of key mathematics skills, safety training, equipment review and handling,
etc.), ILSR conducted on-site training at three different sites, acquainting
trainees with a diverse array of sites, materials, and conditions. ILSR
also provided helped deconstruction enterprise management training in
areas from conducting site assessments to business administration to
marketing and bidding contracts.