Billions earmarked for 'green jobs,' training programs

May 26, 2009

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — About $4 billion from President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan that was budgeted to renovate public housing will be spent to create "green jobs" by making the dwellings more energy efficient.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan is set to make the announcement today in Denver at a meeting of Obama's Middle Class Task Force.

Also, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, another task force member, will announce that $500 million in stimulus money is becoming available to train workers for those jobs. That includes $50 million for communities battered by job losses and restructuring in the auto industry.

Donovan and Solis will also announce that their departments are working together to make it easier for public housing residents to find training programs or a green job.

The task force, which includes several other Cabinet secretaries, has been working since January to highlight policies and practices to help improve the standard of living of the middle class as the economy tries to recover.

Green jobs, broadly defined as related to helping the environment, pay up to 20 percent more than other jobs, are more likely to be union jobs and are more likely to be held by men, less so by minorities and people who live in cities, according to a report that the task force issued in February.

The jobs also are ones that cannot be easily transferred overseas.

Donovan said Monday that the investment in public housing will help meet several goals: improving the quality of public housing, reducing energy costs for residents and the government, and creating jobs for people who live in the units and in the surrounding community.