We know it’s hard to get good jobs if you live in the South End. Knowing why, shouldn’t we have a strategy?

by Tom McPheeters

The article Millennials Are Screwed should be a must-read for anybody concerned about our inner city neighborhoods. If you have not read it, set aside a half hour and be prepared to be outraged.

While the article (in Huffington Post’s Highline section) is focused on the plight of young adults caught in the economic tsunami of the 2009 Great Recession and its aftermath, it lays out in devastating clarity the structural inequities that have kept residents of low income neighborhoods and people of color out of the economic mainstream for many, many decades.

Workforce development is not a new topic, but in Albany there is a new interest and some new initiatives (see our newsletter). I would like to offer the following thoughts:

• The structural barriers facing low income workers are enormous, and any new program that hopes to “break the cycle of poverty” better be fully prepared to deal with the almost inevitable setbacks that come with living paycheck to paycheck. Government anti-poverty and safety net programs are utter failures in dealing with these low-level but devastating catastrophes (an illness, a car accident or breakdown, etc.) As the HuffPo article points out, the best way to deal with these setbacks is to make sure families have a cushion, a little extra income (just like us middle class folks). Where is that to come from?
• Address the high cost of housing, the biggest single drain on family finances. Housing insecurity and the cycle of homelessness is one of the major reasons people don’t keep the jobs they have.
• Start to break the “contract worker” system. I recently talked with a young man at a family homeless shelter. He has a job with a local contractor doing demolition and cleanup for the Albany County Land Bank, but he still fell behind on his rent, got evicted and ended up at Schuyler Inn. The HuffPo article made me realized how prevalent the contract labor system has become. Albany Housing pays contractors to do its grounds keeping and maintenance. The local hotels hire through contractors for their housekeeping and kitchen jobs. Many workers these days get 30 hours a week and no benefits, and very little job security. Not every employer can be persuaded to change their ways, but surely public authorities and some local businesses can be led to see their own role in keeping people in poverty.
• Remember what has to be a primary goal — strengthen the economic life of the neighborhood. Workforce development works best in neighborhoods that already have things going for them, where people see hope and a future for themselves and their children. At a certain point, the neighborhood becomes its own network and support system and generator of ambition. We are not really helping a lot of people when our few successes get a better job and move out.
• Don't aim for the fences with every program. There may be a few people who can jump from sweeping floors to a great job in some tech company. We should applaud them and help them however we can, but they can’t be the focus here. For most people, there are many steps in between, and on each rung of the ladder there needs to be both a job, support and training for the next job.
• Understand that unions have different agendas. As the HuffPo article points out, most unions these days are in a defensive mode, and focused on keeping their current members employed. In my opinion, we have invested way too much effort in trying to persuade the construction trades in the Capital Region to let people of color into their high-wage system, only to find that the deck is stacked against new workers. It's almost impossible to actually make a living without substantial seniority, a reliable vehicle and (usually) a second job. The white color unions are seen as allies to the poor, but not portals to their good paying jobs.
• Find areas of opportunity — professions that have both entry-level positions with minimal training and opportunities for advancement. Develop relationships with the employers, so that the job exists at every off ramp. We have been exploring a couple of good prospects, and I am sure there are others.

1. Train people with some construction skills to work on our many vacant buildings. These are non-union jobs that require both traditional skills and extensive problem-solving skills that find economic ways of dealing with decay and inexpensive design solutions.
2. The health and medical fields offer a variety of entry-level jobs that could lead to higher paying jobs. We see some residents of the South End take advantage of these opportunities, and now Trinity and AVillage are hiring South End residents to serve as Resident Outreach Workers. With encouragement and more training, these part-time positions could lead to good paying full time jobs.
3. Trinity’s Capital South Campus Center had been scouting employers who are willing to start people at entry level and bring them along. What is missing is a funded cadre of employment advisors, counselors and problem solvers. Transportation, medical crises, children’s illnesses, etc. And, as I wrote earlier, cash when it’s needed.