Old House Is Summer Job and Classroom for Students

Garbed in hard hats and dust masks, 30 San Diego youngsters spent a 15-minute break Friday listening to the radio and trying to stay cool under a glaring sun.

But the “back to work” order of a supervisor soon ended the break.

As participants of the Youth Housing Opportunity Program (YHOP), these youngsters have traded summer days of leisure for the experience of renovating a dilapidated house.

YHOP, a nonprofit organization, was started in 1981 to provide youths with summer job experience in the construction industry, said Kathleen Almond, a YHOP board member.

The program is a joint effort of the Building Industry Assn. of San Diego County and the San Diego County Regional Occupational Program. A different construction firm sponsors the program each year.

McMillin Construction of National City is sponsoring this year’s project at 529 S. 36th St. The firm provides insurance, building permits and pay for the crew for seven weeks’ work.

“Our company gets satisfaction in knowing that we may turn some kids to the construction trade,” said Joe Taylor, McMillin vice president.

“It is amazing to turn a house that is completely uninhabitable into a home,” he added.

The jobs at the house include plumbing, carpentry and landscaping. The work begins at 7 a.m and is finished at 2:30 p.m. The youths, 16 years and older, are paid for three hours work a day and receive three high school credits.

The youngsters went through a week of classroom preparation before starting on the job Friday.

“The kids are usually pretty good workers,” said Larry LaBrack, vocational education teacher at Patrick Henry High School and supervisor of the crew. “We get an old wreck like this and turn it into the best looking thing on the street.”

This year’s project will be completed in August, and the program will culminate in a graduation ceremony at the house, which will be home for four nuns from St. Vincent De Paul Center.

Some of the young workers complained Friday about being paid only the minimum wage, but for others, like Ricardo Nuno, 16, the experience is worthwhile because he wants to work in the construction business.

“I want to learn about construction,” Ricardo said. “If I wasn’t working, I’d probably be at my house all summer. What else is there to do?”

Wanda Long, 16, one of four girls in this year’s crew, said the three hours class credit is incentive to wake up at 5 a.m.

“The work’s really not hard, especially not for pay and the credit,” Wanda said.

The only thing that bothered Ricardo about the job was the stinging experience he had Friday when he encountered a beehive.

“The hardest work was running away from the bees,” he said.