Lot prices in the lower 9th ward are low, and favorable for luxury developments and out-of-town developers are looking to take advantage of low prices. One construction company that’s building in New Orleans for the greater good is unCommon Construction, a construction company that provides paid apprentices for local high school students.
“We want to be able to support kids that want to go into the trade,” said Sydney Doyle, the group leader at the current site.
In 2005, New Orleans experienced a hurricane known as Katrina. It has been 15 years since the horrific storm, and the lower 9th ward is reminded every day. In the lower 9th ward, there are neighborhoods that are overrun with weeds, graffiti covered buildings, and soulless houses. This community has become a desert for grocery stores, businesses, hospitals, and schools.
“When people were bused out of the city a lot of people didn’t have the money to get back or didn’t have the money to fix their home, so they moved somewhere else.” said Doyle.
This storm was an influential moment for the “haves and the have nots.” Thousands of people were able to evacuate and thousands of families that weren’t able to evacuate, most of who were low-income, or disabled. A lot of the people that couldn’t evacuate died in their homes, and those people that survived had to bear ongoing struggles to survive, and financial hurdles rebuild their homes.
“There so many abandoned lots and homes … the city wants to get people living in them,” said Doyle.
There were a couple incentives implemented to redevelop the 9th ward, but most of those incentives lacked character and culture. unCommon Construction provides high school students paid apprentices, so they are equipped with soft and hard skills once they graduate.
“Most of what we focus on is soft skill development, so yeah they are construction and there is hard skills but what really focus on is time management and professional attitude,” said Doyle.
Students from varying New Orleans high schools who are at least 16 are encouraged to apply. Local high school students that are interested don’t need previous construction experience and must be able to commit 10 hours a week.
“We partner with a lot of different construction companies … and we try to have a diverse cohort each semester.” said Doyle.
Each cohort of students builds one house from start to finish every semester. The students earn high school internship credit, hourly pay, work experience, and a scholarship once they graduate.
“The money from that sell is what pays our kids paychecks, and we give them equity awards, so we match 50 cents to every dollar they make every semester that goes into a scholarship they get when they graduate…. and the next student group,” said Doyle.
The houses they build are sold in an open market and they are typically priced below the medium range in the neighborhood. This is Sydney’s first time working on a home in the lower 9th ward, she also assisted in building homes in St. Rock neighborhood. If you are interested in learning more about unCommon Construction click here https://uncommonconstruction.org/.
“This is only our second affordable home that we’ve done, with our program we can’t afford to build affordable homes often which is why it’s exciting we get to do this one,” said Doyle.
