For now, the house is a shambles. The windows are boarded. The front porch is leaning. It's been vacant for 20 years.
But soon, youths will be swarming all over it, aiming to turn the place at 4620 Greene Street into an environmental showplace, worthy of LEED certification. In the process, they'll also learn new skills and work toward getting their high school diplomas.
Yesterday, two companies, Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed, announced their support for the project. They are providing a three-year, $550,000 grant to support YouthBuild USA.
The nonprofit organization describes itself this way: "A youth and community development program that simultaneously addresses core issues facing low-income communities--housing, education, employment, crime prevention, and leadership development. In YouthBuild programs, low-income young people ages 16-24 work full-time for 6 to 24 months toward their GEDs or high school diplomas while learning job skills by building affordable, increasingly green, housing for homeless and low-income people and participating in leadership development activities in their communities."
Saint-Gobain is a building products company with 330 North American locations and 19,000 employees based in Valley Forge. CertainTeed is one of Saint-Gobain's businesses.
About 20 students at a time will work on the Greene Street project, with oversight and materials from the two companies. The estimated cost is $250,000, not including product donations from the two companies.
It will take about 10 to 12 months to turn the building into a two-family home, officials said. After that, it will be sold to a first-time homebuyer through Philadelphia Neighborhood Housing Services.
The grant also will fund projects in Ohio, Massachusetts and New York.
GreenSpace - her column about how to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life - appears every other Monday in Health & Science.
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