Minnesota's Youthbuild Housing Program

Provides Housing and Prepares Students

Minnesota's Youthbuild housing program is designed to increase the number of affordable housing units in communities that face an affordable housing shortage, while at the same time helping to equip young people with valuable trade skills that help jumpstart their future.

Approximately $877,000 is distributed to these organizations by the state Legislature each year. In 2002, this funding helped 398 young Minnesotans build 150 affordable units that served 401 homeless and low-income individuals and families.

Minnesota Participants

A number of non-profit affordable housing groups have partnered with the Youthbuild program across the state. Since the programs inception in 1999, over 400 housing units have been created.

Twelve organizations have partnered with the Youthbuild program: The Bi-County Community Action Programs; Inc. (Bemidji)The City, Inc. (Minneapolis); Carver-Scott Educational Cooperative (Chaska); Summit Academy OIC (Minneapolis); Rural Minnesota CEP (Detroit Lakes and Perham); City Academy (St. Paul); Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency Inc. (Virginia); Central MN Jobs and Training Services (Willmar); Guadalupe Alternative Programs (St. Paul); Stearns-Benton Employment and Training Council (St. Cloud); Project for Pride in Living (Minneapolis); and Southeastern Minnesota Workforce Development; Inc. (Wabasha and Rochester).

Lessons Learned

By monitoring the variety of existing Youthbuild housing organizations throughout the state, a series of lessons have been learned:

• Youthbuild housing programs do not reduce the costs of construction as much as other affordable housing programs. Students are learning construction skills as they work and are not as efficient as master tradesman.
• The programs are very successful in creating modest homes while providing important skills and self-confidence to young people.

The success of the Youthbuild program depends greatly on the degree to which they are supported by local communities. Districts that have made a solid commitment to vocational training hire a full-time teaching staff and develop thoughtful curricula and funding strategies.

The success of youth-built housing programs also depends on the students. As with any training program, tolerance and patience plays a key role in the successful experience of all participants.

Seven Minnesota Youthbuild students from
Little Falls work with their instructors
and members of the Little Falls HRA on
a GMHF-assisted project.

A student from Little Falls prepares to
cut a piece of siding for her classmate.


Towards the end of the semester, students
finish siding the home and help float
the concrete driveway.

By the end of the term, another affordable
unit is finished in Little Falls, Minnesota.