From homeless to $22 an hour, thanks to new construction program

John Robinson didn’t think Newark city officials were serious about a construction trades program for residents like him living in a homeless shelter.

The facility on Sussex Avenue had been slated to be closed in March after it was open through the winter months to house those in need.

So, it only made sense for Robinson to be skeptical of the job offer in June to learn a trade that would teach him to repair housing authority apartments.

“But when they (city officials) started taking names, that’s when we knew it was real,” said Robinson, 39, a married father of three children.

Robinson jumped at the chance, even though the shelter closed for a day in July when the city didn’t have any more funds. Corporate donors paid the $200,000 cost to keep it open for that month. The shelter, however, is still open as the city continues to work on a plan to house the homeless population.

Residents living there are relieved for now that they have somewhere to go. Fifteen of them were selected to be interviewed and screened for the construction trade program offered by the Newark Housing Authority and Laborers Local 55, a residential construction labor union in Newark. About half of those who applied to the program were accepted.

The housing agency and the union had already been training and hiring Newark residents for the past year, but it extended the program to include those who were homeless when the shelter issue surfaced.

NHA Executive Director Victor Cirilo said he thought it would be a good idea to approach the city about the idea of hiring homeless in the shelter, because the program with the union has gone well for some 50 Newark residents who had been trained and hired.

Since last year, Cirilo said residents have turned over 130 apartments out of 525.

The job pays $22 an hour and opens the door to a future they’ve been looking to attain.

“Imagine that,” Cirilo said. “Being homeless and going to $22 an hour.”

Laborers Local 55 provided the opportunity when it sat down with the housing authority last year to discuss training Newark residents in construction trades with a promise that the agency would hire them.

Local 55 President Wayne Richardson, an Essex County freeholder, said previous housing administrations opted to hire contractors who rarely employed Newark residents on construction jobs.

“This can segue them off of the system and not rely on the housing authority and not rely on food stamps,” Richardson said.

“They can be self-supporting. They want to work, but no one was giving them an opportunity.”

Now, they’re running with it.

At Bradley Court, four of the workers were painting and spackling. They are also installing new flooring, kitchen cabinets, a sink and new light fixtures.