9978-09 Appropriating $2,463,435 from Community Development (Fund 212), defraying expenses of CED

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St. ]oseph County Housing Consortium One of the primary ways to assist is to help individuals secure life-sustaining employment. Our community has a wide range of organizations and programs which provide training and{or employment opportunities to the community's citizens in need. For example, Logan Industries employs developmentally disabled adults in assembly and packaging positions. Goodwill Industries has over 75 years of service to the community to provide jobs, training and placement services for people with barriers to employment. Goodwill offers a diverse spectrum of job choices to cater to a diverse range of employment skills and interests. The Center for the Homeless has a landscaping business, CFH Landscaping, which offers an opportunity for both training and employment to their clients. The local Workforce Diversity program assists ex-offenders, recently released from prison, to secure job training and employment. In 2009, South Bend Redevelopment funding was provided to Project Impact to assist with job readiness, primarily for ex-offenders. Further examples of the variety of mechanisms this community employs to try to attack the problems of poverty in this community include the Center for Homeless STAR (Skilled, Trained, Able, and Ready) program which includes job readiness, externships, job retention, and job search; assistance with job training, bus tokens to such training and/or job interviews, child care and uniform allowances for residents of the Urban Enterprise Zone, under the Zone Resident Employment Program (funded from local UEA dollars); Individual Development Accounts (funded by the State) used to assist zone residents and housing authority residents in the cost of education andJor home ownership (asset building). In addition, the South Bend Housing Authority has established the Alonzo Watson University for their clients to help ready clients for employment opportunities which give them a chance to live independently outside the assisted housing system. Two more recent programs are the Apprenticeship Academy and Bridges Out of Poverty. The Apprenticeship Academy was started by a business CEO who could not find trained workers. Working with Vincennes University, a training program primarily targeted to manufacturing, but also including health certifications, is coordinated among the Academy, South Bend Community School Corporation, Work One, and the City of South Bend. Bridges Out of Poverty is a local program based on a nationally recognized model that serves to educate both the low- income individual and the employer community on how to work together to address issues that prevent people in poverty from becoming employed. The St. Joseph County community is further committed to implementation of the low income employment (Section 3) provisions at 24CFR, Part 135 in the use of federal funds covered by Section 3. To that end, the Section 3 clause is incorporated into each contract using CDBG, CDBG-R, HOME, ESG, NSP, and HPRP funding. All public works construction contracts using such funds include Section 3 language as well. In addition, Section 3 requirements are outlined during the pre-construction meeting for those projects. Each contractor is also asked if they will be hiring new employees as a result of the project. If the answer is yes, we will monitor their efforts to employ Section 3 residents for that job. We further understand the South Bend Public Housing Authority is establishing a list of eligible Section 3 workers among their residents and will work with the Housing Authority to connect the employment opportunities with the Section 3 people seeking work. Our housing rehabilitation contractors also sometimes need employees to complete their work. We will work with our housing rehabilitation nonprofit partners to enhance the potential that Section 3 residents will be able to secure employment with those businesses as well. We also continue our efforts to bring new, quality jobs into St. Joseph County by creating the conditions which will attract new business to the community. As more firms move in, future job growth equal to or greater than population growth will induce young people to stay in the area and hopefully draw new residents from outside Michiana. If unemployment is low, then firms must compete to attract the best, highly-skilled workers, causing upward 2010-2014 Housing and Community Development Plan 61