Pueblo Community College to boost home construction training through state grant
A division of Pueblo Community College will receive state funding to launch a program that seeks to revitalize rural housing and support construction training initiatives in Pueblo.
Pueblo Corporate College, a division of PCC that will receive $417,000 from the state attorney general office’s Colorado Partnership for Education and Rural Revitalization grant program, will use the funding to launch a new curriculum centered on construction skills training.
The money will also be used so students can get on-site training at home construction sites in Pueblo through partnerships with local nonprofits.
Pueblo Corporate College is a new addition to the grant program that was launched in 2020 to address housing shortages and support construction training programs in southeastern Colorado. Trinidad State College and Lamar Community College received grant money when the program launched and used it to start their own programs. They received additional funding and plan to expand those programs.
“As we witnessed in the first years of this grant program, colleges in southern Colorado successfully developed additional programming to train students for the workforce and renovate dilapidated homes in their communities,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a news release. “The expansion of this grant will support them as they continue to reinvigorate housing options and support students learning a construction trade that meets compelling workforce needs in their communities.”
Housing shortages have impacted different parts of the state, including Pueblo, where a 2021 study forecasted the need for nearly 10,000 additional housing units in the county over the next decade. According to the study, the need in Pueblo for workforce housing, which is typically viewed as affordable housing projects, represents 45% of the total projected need.
Part of why it’s challenging to address housing shortages in southern Colorado is because there isn’t enough trained labor in the area that can renovate old and rundown homes, the attorney general’s office said in the news release.
After completing the new program at PCC, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in equipment and safety instruction, reading blueprints and construction math, measurements and framing.
Students will also obtain information about the construction industry and learn how to build connections and seek employment through field trips and classroom visits by industry resources and mentors.
“Pueblo Community College is pleased to have the opportunity to partner with the attorney general and his COPERR project,” said Patty Erjavec, president of PCC, in the release. “Not only does this initiative give us the opportunity to enrich the lives of those interested in acquiring skills and competencies in the construction trades, but we are humbled to play a part in the revitalization of blighted neighborhoods in the communities we serve.”
Colorado voters during the 2022 general election expressed a desire to see funding directed toward affordable housing projects. A statewide ballot initiative that dedicates 0.1% of sales tax revenue — estimated to generate $145 million and nearly $300 million in the current and following state budget year, respectively — to affordable housing programs and home ownership was approved by nearly 53% of Colorado voters during that election, according to official results.
Most Pueblo voters backed the measure with 51.69%, or 33,770, turning in yes votes.
According to Pueblo city councilors Sarah Martinez and Heather Graham, Pueblo “stands to gain” nearly $9 million per year from the initiative. That amount could lead to the construction of 330 affordable homes annually, the pair said in their public support of the measure.
Trinidad State College will use the additional funding to expand the COPERR program and class to its Valley Campus in Alamosa after launching it at its main campus in March 2021. According to the school, students spend mornings in class and head to job sites in the afternoon.
Lamar Community College said it plans to direct its new funding toward two mobile trailer classrooms that will work directly with high schools in the northern and southern parts of its service area. The instruction in those mobile classrooms will either create a pipeline for students to enter college or help them seek employment using the information they learned through the program’s construction courses.
Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @josuepwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Community College to boost home construction training through state grant
