成为一名建筑工人并不是布莱恩·莫雷诺长久以来的梦想. 他工作 在汽车修理厂. 八个月前他女儿的出生让他 33岁开始评估不同的职业道路. 

他只是没有赚到足够的钱. 

“Yeah, for my life right now,” Moreno 说, “I just need to get a 工作 and something 快，你们知道? 开始支持我的家庭.”

So, he started studying in the welding 程序 at 正规的购彩app下载 in Southern 科罗拉多州. 然而，认证需要一年的时间，等待的时间太长了 莫雷诺等待工作. 然后，在他上课的地方旁边， 他看到另一个项目正在进行中，很快就转了过来. 这是一个新的努力 the college offering to help plug eager workers into construction 工作s with just four 几周的培训. 

The course would consist of about half hands-on work, renovating one of the many blighted, 在城市里发现了破旧的房屋. 

COPERR Program in Trinidad is a template for similar initiatives in Southern 科罗拉多州

What Moreno transferred into was the first in an experimental grant 程序 from the 科罗拉多州总检察长办公室. 拿走500万美元，州政府收到的超过 十年前 在全国范围内解决 源于2008年的抵押贷款危机，办公室 想要帮助解决 这是科罗拉多州东南部长期面临的挑战.

That challenge: Communities in the region often have a decent supply of housing supply that could, in theory, help alleviate the affordable housing issues found all over 国家. 问题是供应的房屋太破旧了，他们 不适宜于居住的.

科罗拉多教育和乡村振兴伙伴关系 或COPERR — initiative, has created short-run 程序s at 正规的购彩app下载, Lamar Community 大学, 最近, 普韦布洛社区学院. 这些地区破败的房屋成为了这些人的实验室 学生学习住宅建筑行业. 特立尼达的项目于2021年3月启动.

“We're committing to a theory that we are testing in the marketplace,” 说 科罗拉多州 司法部长Phil Weiser. “如果你训练人们重新开发这些房产， 你会重新开发它们. 你会卖掉它们，改善社区，然后赚到钱 回到这个项目中，它会继续自我维持.” 

小区更新

Recently, on Trinidad’s west end sat what were originally two nearly identical 房屋. Moreno and his classmate Steven Wilson were 学习 to cut sheetrock in one of the 房屋. 

It was difficult to tell which parts of the disarray inside had to do with the demolition and renovation work of the class, and what was the natural byproduct of a property 长时间空.    

Jerry Begley, who runs the construction training 程序 at the college, pointed out the inside of the walls of the home were nothing more than earthen bricks made of 20世纪的干泥和稻草.

“Adobe walls, and it insulates really good as far as this [being] over a hundred years 老了，”贝格利说. “当你去隔壁时，你会看到它可以，我们可以，改变事情 周围.”

Next door, the other house is the first property in the COPERR 程序 to go back 销售. 房子的外观完全不同. 第二个里面 house, notwithstanding some remnants of the original interior, including sections of hardwood flooring and the pantry door, has been entirely renovated by Begley’s students into a modern two bed, two bath starter home with entirely new plumbing, 电气和暖通空调系统. 该学院预计将以22万美元的价格出售. 

Getting the property ready for market took about a year and a half, with new students 每个月循环完成这个项目. 贝格利说，他期待周转时间 随着主动性的成熟而放弃. 

“I think every community could use something like this to be able to help the needs of dealing with blighted 房屋, improving neighborhoods, bringing property values 贝格利说. 

建设劳动力队伍

Weiser acknowledged the properties completed by the COPERR 程序 won’t make a directly 为该地区提供负担得起的住房存量大幅减少.

“But, by training people to do construction work in Southern 科罗拉多州, we believe we're creating an economic opportunity engine because we're creating the workforce that's needed to develop housing far beyond what happens in the 程序 itself,” Weiser 说.  

Begley 说 the relatively short COPERR training — students typically spend just four weeks 学习 the trade — could help draw in underserved communities or low income 人们有动力去尝试新事物. 除了实践培训， 学生们每小时的工资为12美元R以及工具带和他们需要免费学习的书籍.

完成课程的学生将获得证书 国家建设教育与研究中心.

“我们有机会让一些可能穷困潦倒的人，他们想要一个 second, third, fourth, fifth chance to come in and they say, ‘We need a 工作,’” Begley 说. “特立尼达在四周内一直处于(帮助人们)的最前沿 也许会有转机.”

What Begley 说 he did not expect was the number of people signing up for the 程序 looking not for a career change, but a set of skills to help with their own home improvement 目标. He recently had several women take the course after failing to find local professionals 对于特定的项目在自己的属性. 

While taking a break from installing the sheetrock with Moreno, Wilson explained he was also taking the class more as a 学习 opportunity than a direct path to a new 工作. 51岁的他从军队退役后，他的家人都在建筑业工作 in 2016 thought he would use his GI Bill to start on a path toward managing a construction 公司. He 说 the business management 程序 he eventually took felt somehow incomplete.

“你知道，这完全是书本知识? 在桌子后面，不许动手，不许拿 你的手很脏，”威尔逊说. “我觉得我在这里学到的东西 就像速成班，但这是个很好的速成班.”

He 说 in the three weeks he had been 学习 from Begley, he had learned everything from driving a skid steer to framing a door to safely smashing a 500-pound cast iron 浴缸.

获取供应 一个挑战

Perhaps ironically, the biggest challenge for 正规的购彩app下载 has been acquiring 破旧的房屋供学生翻新. 

“It has been really difficult to get 房屋 and get them at a reasonable price,” 说 LiAnn Richardson是该学院COPERR资助基金的负责人. 

She 说 the city has plenty of blighted properties that could meet the needs of the 程序. 然而，要么是业主提出的要求超出了项目的支付能力 或者他们根本找不到失主.

Tracking down the owners of old and decaying properties has been a problem in Trinidad 在COPERR项目之外. 这个城市是 在文化复兴时期 在一场大流行引发的大批艺术家和企业家离开之后 丹佛. 城市经理史蒂夫·鲁格(Steve Ruger)表示，寻找业主的挑战造成了障碍 来促进一些新的 对城市历史街区的投资 以及周边地区 新的渔人峰州立公园.

“The latest record they might be able to find is [from] a hundred years ago, and it’s something that’s not very formal and doesn’t really particularly address the exact 财产界限，”鲁格说. 

COPERR 程序 managers at the 正规的购彩app下载 Alamosa campus have also expressed 取得财产困难.  

Weiser 说 part of the intention behind creating the grant 程序 was discovering what complications with 国家’s tax lien, condemnation and property ownership policies would need to be adjusted to make renovating blighted properties more practical.

“我们正在思考‘前进的方向是什么?因为这显然是 opportunity here is to get properties … into circulation and out of the deep hole 其中一些属性就在那里，”韦瑟说. “我们还没有答案 这是我们正在考虑的问题.”

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