When 40-year-old Lloyd Gray brought his June 2009 rent receipt to the Highbridge Gardens Management Office of his New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) development in the Bronx this past summer, he had no idea that the simple meeting with his development manager would change his life. “He asked me if I wanted a job,” Mr. Gray said.

That's because the roof repair and brick work that needed to be done at Highbridge Gardens was among 75 NYCHA “shovel-ready” capital projects that received funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Of the $4 billion in capital stimulus funding allocated to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), $423 million came to NYCHA, allowing progress to be made on projects that had previously been stalled. Out of that, $1.94 million went for repairing the cracked parapet walls and leaky roofs at all six of Highbridge Gardens' residential buildings.

Lloyd Gray's chance meeting with his development manager and NYCHA's Resient Employment Services resulted in a career opportunity that allows him to do better for himself and his community. Photo credit: Pete Mikoleski

Thanks to the federal requirement known as Section 3, recipients of certain HUD financial assistance, to the greatest extent possible, must provide job training, employment, and contract opportunities for low- or very-low income residents in connection with projects and activities in their neighborhoods. So STV Construction, the contractors performing the work at Highbridge, needed to hire NYCHA residents.

So when Highbridge Gardens Manager Ricardo Rodriguez asked Mr. Gray if he wanted a job? Mr. Gray responded with a resounding, “Yes.” And that was the beginning of his new career as a construction worker.

Mr. Gray, who had been living at Highbridge Gardens for half of his life, lost his position as a porter at Rockefeller University on Manhattan's Upper East Side about a year-and-a-half earlier. By the time he was ready to look for work again, his workers' compensation had run out and the economy had tanked. Today, Mr. Gray works as a mason tender, or laborer, making just over $30 an hour. He began work on July 15, 2009.

“We get the same pay as the workers hired by the union,” he said proudly. Mr. Gray is about to become a member of the Construction and General Building Laborers Local 79 union, so that when the Highbridge job is finished, he will still have work. “I'm just waiting for the paperwork to go through,” he said. “It will be any day now.”

Mr. Gray said no special training was involved for his job as a mason tender. “We assist the people who do the brick work, the roof work. Basically whatever they need. We clean up, we learn as we go along. Once we get into the union though we're going to learn all about construction.”

“I'm one of the lucky ones,” Mr. Gray continued. “I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I brought my rent receipt to the Management Office, one thing led to another, I talked to the lady at NYCHA's Resident Employment Services and here I am.”Mr. Gray had no idea that President Obama's Stimulus Plan would have a direct impact on his own life, but now he's glad it did. “To be honest with you, I didn't think it [the Stimulus Plan] would reach here. But something good is happening.”

By Eileen Elliot
October 13, 2009