For more than four years, Charlotte Brewer of Joliet dreamed of becoming a homeowner, but a bargain-basement price tag of $27,000 was not in her scenario.
Brewer’s wish became reality thanks to a Joliet program that is putting dropouts and people who have had trouble with the law to work sprucing up dilapidated houses and giving them an opportunity to earn their GEDs.
After living in a city housing complex, Brewer’s prayers were answered in April when she bought a home for $26,900 at 1300 Fuller Ave. Brewer, 40, a sales clerk in a toy store, and her two adult daughters moved into the three-bedroom house that includes a basement and new carpet.
“I am very happy to be in my own home,” she said. “I am overwhelmed.”
Brewer’s home took two years to restore. The former vacant house was going to be demolished until the owner donated it to the city.
“It is so beautiful,” Brewer said of her home, showing off a kitchen with a tile floor and wooden cabinets. “They have really done a good job.”
Joliet instituted the program, called the Youth Build Project, in 1993 after it received a federal housing grant through its Neighborhood Services Department. Two other homes besides Brewer’s have been restored since then.
Restoration work has lasted a year or more because of the shape the homes were in and because the program places an emphasis on student learning instead of speed, said Jeff Sterr, a neighborhood services rehabilitation specialist who oversees the projects.
The people working in the city program are picked to participate in the Youth Build Project so they can complete their GED, Sterr said. They go to class for four hours a day year-round and then go to a work site.
The Forest Park Community Center and the Spanish Center help the city with the program by suggesting youngsters who could benefit from participating in it. Depending on the neighborhood where the home project is at, the students take classes at either the Spanish Center or the Forest Park Community Center. The Workforce Development Council of Will County (formerly the Private Industry Council) helps the program by doing the administrative paperwork.
The participants, earning the minimum wage of $5.65 an hour, work up to 32 hours a week. Most participants are in the program for six to eight months, after which the city’s neighborhood services tries to help them find a job, Sterr said.
“The idea of the program was not to make carpenters or electricians or plumbers out of the young people,” said Robert C. Listner, the director of the city’s neighborhood services department. “It was to give them a taste of the work life, how to listen to direction and work out problems and do things on their own that they have never had an opportunity to do,” he said. “The end result is that the city gets a house that is rehabilitated for the cost of materials and then we pass on that savings on . . . to first-time home buyers.”
“I have learned a lot,” said Ranell Duncan, 27, who has worked in the project for nine months. “It has taught me some work skills and, in general, how to hold down a job.”
Eric Peterson, 22, is working on a police substation project, where he recently helped his supervisor with drywall. He joined the program about two months ago.
“I’m using this as a steppingstone,” Peterson said, noting he will enroll at Joliet Junior College next fall to study business management.
“I want to suck up all the experience I can here. My goal is take advantage of this in the next couple of years and be able to work for some company for five to seven years and then have my own business.”
Two buildings are being restored now and work is to start on another home this summer, Sterr said. One of those projects is at 506 Garnsey Ave.
The police department plans to use the building as a substation when the $7,000 renovation project is completed this summer. The City Council recently endorsed the department’s plans to use the home to tackle gang and drug problems in the neighborhood.
In addition to the substation, students are restoring an 1870s-era home at 214 Herkimer St. The students have received hands-on instruction in plumbing, electricity, drywall and carpentry.
The city recoups its material cost and any land-acquisition cost through the sale price. The labor and the equipment is covered through the federal grant. A window company and a heating company help by donating materials at cost.
