Travis County Commissioners Court
March 8, 2005
Item 3
Number 3 is a presentation from american youthworks regarding energy-efficient, award-winning affordable housing program.
>> good morning, judge, county Commissioners, county attorney. My name is richard halpin with american youthworks. I am here to report back to you today on an investment that you have made and share with you a presentation that we have received. As many of you know here on the court and in the listening area, american youthworks in partnership with Travis County builds remarkable, affordable, energy-efficient homes. The best homes in the united states are built in Travis County. I think they have all been built in precinct 4, as a matter of fact. And these remarkable, wonderful, award-winning homes have received national attention from the national association of home builders, the largest association in the united states representing home builders across the united states, and they have awarded to american youth center a partner in Travis County gold medal for the best energy-efficient, affordable homes in the united states, and we're here today to talk to you about that. We've got a little videotape that's been shot by a local news team and we would like to ask the good folks at the Travis County media department to roll that tape.
>> means greenhouse in spanish.
>> over the last decade, american youthworks casa verde pweuplt 46 so-called greenhouses in Austin. On the porch, jim swift tells us the lightest house achieves the five star energy efficiency rating and drew the attention of people from around the country. There were two dozen of them, policy makers, big wigs from washington, d.c. And other parts of the country. They stepped off a blue and white bus, hustled through a cold, gray day. Made their way into a bright green home. They were greeted at the door by the young people of american youthworks casa verde building program. Young people who along with their instructors positively beamed as they showed off the work of their hands.
>> another good feature about this is that you can actually texture and tape and float right on top of that. So you are not having to pay for extra drywall.
>> reporter: the kids go to school half time and work on the houses the rest of the day.
>> it's amazing.
>> recycled blue jeans. We use it for insulating under the house. It's non-irritating.
>> reporter: on top of all that, and I mean quite literalry on top of all that, up on the roof are some solar panels. Photovoltaic cells that work so efficiently that if you look closely what you can see is an electric meter actually running backwards.
>> you get money that [inaudible] otherwise you wouldn't be able to do it.
>> reporter: but casa verde does more than save energy, it also saves people.
>> stay off of drugs.
>> when you having trouble with those things?
>> yes, I was. So I decided to get into this program and kind of change and make my family proud of me.
>> and did you?
>> yes, sir.
>> I was in between or possibly thinking about what I want to do and then had low self-esteem and just had myself down in the dirt, you know, and I didn't really feel that much hope for myself.
>> after I graduated from the program, time to go to a.c.c., I could get a good job, check my background.
>> reporter: the policy makers were impressed.
>> the problem with too many young people is that they don't have opportunities to be valuable to their community, and this is an opportunity to do that.
>> I could probably be the boss, you know. That's probably what I want to be, the boss.
>> ever see yourself being the boss before?
>> I'm the boss right now.
>> self-esteem problem solved.
>> so you can see we wanted to bring to the bosses, the real bosses, the people who make the investment in this work what this is all about. And standing behind me today are some of the young men and women who make up these programs. These programs include not only casa verde but the environmental corps, a youth fund that builds trails in each one of the precincts you are in charge of. The last thing I wanted to show you today is an issue that you are all very concerned about. That is the return on investment. So what does all this mean? Besides great homes and cameo appearances by county attorneys in the video which was completely accidental, I have to assure you --
>> next time can we give him a hammer and some coveralls?
>> he was working there. He was there to actually look the thing over and see if it was really working. He was asking questions like he was an attorney or something.
>> keep asking [inaudible].
>> so we got this quick slide show and we're about to run it now. Take a look at these statistics because I think you will find them pretty amazing. This is the cumulative number of hopes we've built, about 90 homes in mostly precinct 4. They cut the utility bills by 40% a month. The next is a -- as a return on investment, the cumulative property values. The property values have increased from vacant lots which were costing the county money in unpaid taxes to now over $6 billion in property values. Those are good as long as somebody is paying taxes on them. Now you've got over $700,000 a year coming in as taxes on those properties which were once only being used to sell drugs. These are extraordinary young men and women behind me over the last 10 years have earned over $3.5 million in scholarship funds that will mostly be spent here in Austin at Austin community college or other Austin colleges. About 70% of our young people are folks who have not finished school and some in the criminal justice system. The most conservative estimate for the cost of each one of these young people is about $291,000 a person. Over the last 10 years your investment has saved over $200 million in this community for investing in these young people. In terms of the impact, if you looked at -- this was done by a group of businessmen. We've been very fortunate to be blessed by businessmen and women on our board like joe standing with our young men and women back here, county attorney david escamilla and many others. If you look at the investment, we have a high school dropout rate in our community of about 37%. 37% of the 9th graders will not finish high school. If the dropout rate -- if the graduation rate in Travis County remains -- from the tkopout rate in Travis County remains the same, it's going to cost taxpayers $63 million in new tax revenues that will have to be generated annually just to cover the cost of impacts on dropouts in year 2006. However, if we could change the graduation rate from 63% to 90% by the year 2006, actual income would increase to $117 million in new tax revenues annually which would mean that everybody could pay lower taxes. In summary, your dollars are leveraged dramatically. You can see the $210,000 invested by the county, the largest local investor, city and the county, against all that money that we bring in from the federal government. Not only does this save lives, not only does it create an extraordinary opportunities for people, and one of our young people has asked if she could speak to you directly, so I'm going to ask shaminique jones to come up and speak to you.
>> hello, my name is shaminique jones.
>> let's get you on the mic, ms. Jones. A lot of your fans in t.v.land may want to hear what you have to say.
>> hello, my name is shaminique jones and I would like to start by thanking judge Biscoe and the Commissioner's office for helping me in every way. A year ago I was in Travis County jail with three kids and one on the way. I had no education, didn't know where I was going, couldn't find a job, and life was just going downhill for me. I couldn't even get a g.e.d. Program. Now I'm in the g.e.d. Program trying really hard to graduate by June. My children are in day care and school. I'm working with an income, and if possible i'll be in college next year going to truck driving school. I just want to say thank you to all of you all. [applause]
>> thank you.
>> we've got this back from orlando where the national home builders association have given them. These ladies and gentlemen will walk up to the members of the court, the judge and county attorney and executive of health and human services and award each one of you a hammer. And the county attorney finally gets his hammer. Got you a hammer and gold medal, Commissioner. Best I could do right now. Increase our grant and we'll get you overalls. [multiple voices]
>> so judge and Commissioners, in summary, we want to thank you and the county you had machine services and the county contracts and investors this these young men and women. They are the workforce, the entrepreneurs, the civicly engaged citizens and the great future of parents and taxpayers and county leaders. Three things that you can do, the members of our county can do is to forge a stronger connection between our work and the -- our work in the community and the county criminal justice system. You can see this is a seamless delivery of turning people away from recidivism. Fund this program with more leverage, and three, find ways to build more of these energy-efficient, affordable homes for the citizens of Travis County. Thank you so much.
>> thank you. Keep up the good work. Just one quick question. So the proceeds from the sale of these homes goes where?
>> all back into the program.
>> I knew the answer, but I thought we ought to publicize that. Good job.
>> richard? You always could hammer out a good deal. Being a former board member, i'd like to congratulate you and joe. Joe has been there. Obviously you have no term limit. [laughter] which I guess in this case, you know, being that I'm a big term limit supporter, you know, it's times like this seeing joe gerkins stand there by that post and knowing the efforts that private citizens have done and, you know, you are -- you and I are good friends. You are an amazing guy. I don't know how you find the energy to get up every day and to, you know, promote and to bring, you know, young people to the table and really create a situation so you really become a contributor in this community versus being somebody that's always on the taking end. And, you know, I wish that we could clone you two guys. I wish that we could clone all of you young people that have participated in this program because you really are, you know, just a shining example of what you can do if you are given, you know, just a little bit of help. So I want to personally thank you for all that you do. This community really doesn't, you know, it's unfortunate that the community is not aware, and it's hard to get these kind of things out in the community that are so worthwhile. But congratulations to each and every one of you all that have participated in this program. Thank you very much, and richard and joe, you know, a big congratulations to you guys for continuing to do such a great job.
>> how about a round of applause for these young men and women. [applause]
>> make sure you take advantage of that college money. Right? All you got to do is go to college. The money is is there.
>> this is one of the 45 social service agencies that I have visited over the last year. It was the first one [inaudible] Gerald was with me that particular day, and it is amazing not only what this program but especially the work they are doing is amazing. When I see judge gerkins, I also flash back more than 20 years because he was my former boss at channel 24. Admiration for joe is immense.
>> richard, I congratulate all of you for the work that you do, the quality work that you do, and that's very important. The other thing that's very interesting, I remember working on the -- the stmp issue many times and one of the promises was there would be photo volley photovoltaic used in the future the and that's very important in the work and goals we set in the past. And I guess the only only question is where do the families come from that you then put in these homes?
>> these are county employees, city employees. These are folks who see our homes for sale and buy them. They are often first-time home buyers. In fact, we had a little bit of money from the city to help first-time home buyers.
>> and I think the county has some first-time money available especially if they are county employees. We probably need to tap into that as well.
>> be happy to do that. And if the county has land they would like to develop as a green subdivision, we would be happy to do that as well. Create more jobs and more affordable housing.
>> richard, thank you. You know how long we go back.
>> yes, sir.
>> so anyway you all have done a great job.
>> the county attorney says -- we couldn't have done it without you.
>> you can imagine how much I know about that just the fact hi to ask you that. I will assure you that my wife -- I don't know what you are doing with a hammer, but if you can donate this thing back to the program so you don't have to purchase one of these, I will more than gladly -- in all seriousness --
>> help us ham you are out new solutions, so you've got the hammer and we're ready to work together.
>> thank you all.
>> keep up the great work. [applause]
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Wednesday, March 9, 2005 11:02 AM