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Affordable housing and a shortage of skilled workers are big challenges across the country. A school district in Boulder, Colorado, has formed a partnership with the city and Habitat for Humanity to teach kids trades by building homes that working people can afford. Sam Fuqua reports.
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SAM FUQUA: We're inside a 32,000-square-foot factory where modular homes are in various stages of construction. High school teacher Darrin Rasmussen and student June Baker huddle over blueprints, figuring out what went wrong with a drywall installation.
DARRIN RASMUSSEN: ...He said it was way too small. Wall A.
JUNE BAKER: Wall A was, like, five of 10.
We have one wall A that's right, and then one that's not built 'cause I had to take it apart. But I've learned my mistake, and then they realized from that mistake that they need to start labeling each wall with numbers.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Hi (ph). You ready up there?
FUQUA: The city of Boulder built this $13 million factory on land owned by the Boulder Valley School District with help from state, federal and private foundation grants and loans, and it pays for the materials used to build the houses. Students get hands-on experience building homes and course credit. The local Habitat for Humanity chapter manages the program. All the groups involved say the three-way partnership is the first of its kind in the nation.
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FUQUA: In November, they trucked their first two homes a few miles away to the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park, where they were hoisted by crane onto foundations. High school senior Sean McCormick was helping out.
SEAN MCCORMICK: I think it was a big accomplishment for us and what we can do in the future and all the problem-solving we had to do 'cause it's not like we're building a little miniproject. It's real-world-type stuff.
FUQUA: McCormick plans to go to trade school to become an electrician or pipe fitter. The industry group American Institute of Constructors estimates the U.S. will need more than 500,000 workers to keep up with demand. After this mobile home park flooded, the city bought it, fixed problems, and began working with Habitat for Humanity on upgrading the housing. Dan McColley is CEO of Flatirons Habitat for Humanity.
DAN MCCOLLEY: So the families who are getting houses here have been living in substandard housing, some of them for decades.
FUQUA: Residents have the option of staying in their mobile home or buying one of these new modular houses.
MCCOLLEY: All of these families will have a mortgage. The mortgage is based on their ability to pay and their income, so there is a significant subsidy involved.
FUQUA: The three-bed, two-bath homes are 1,150 square feet. McColley estimates costs will range between 350- and $450,000. The median price of a single-family home in Boulder last year was over 1.3 million. Maribel Gonzalez-Rodriguez (ph) is one of the new homeowners. She lives in a small, older mobile home just steps away from her new house. She'll move into it soon.
MARIBEL GONZALEZ-RODRIGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
FUQUA: She says it's incredibly exciting that she gets to have her own house. Her trailer right now is two bedrooms, and there's not a lot of space. She's a single mom with four kids. They share the bedrooms. Maribel sleeps on the couch. She's lived in Boulder almost 25 years and works in the kitchen of a downtown hotel.
GONZALEZ-RODRIGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
FUQUA: She'll have her own upstairs bedroom with, she says, the prettiest view in Boulder.
For NPR News, I'm Sam Fuqua. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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