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Historic community benefits agreement reached! (TN)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

September 4, 2018
Stand Up Nashville

Stand Up Nashville is very proud to announce that after several months of intense negotiations with Nashville Soccer Holdings (NSH), we have reached a landmark agreement that sets a new standard for development, including the following commitments:

Affordable Housing

  • 20% of all housing units built at the development site will be set aside as Affordable and Workforce Housing.
  • A commitment to 3 bedroom units that reflect the need for family housing in our city.

Wage Floor

  • NSH agrees to directly hire stadium workers (ushers, ticket takers, box office janitorial, custodial, maintenance, field maintenance employees) and pay them at least $15.50 an hour.
  • The establishment of a first-of-its kind targeted hiring program in Nashville with dedicated staff that will connect individuals with barriers to employment to future job opportunities at the stadium.

Community Services & Amenities

  • 4,000 sq ft will go to a childcare facility, which will operate on a sliding scale.
  • 4,000 sq ft will go to establishing micro-unit retail spaces for artisans and local small businesses at a reduced rental rate.
  • NSH will host annual coaching clinics for Metro School and other youth soccer coaches and donate soccer equipment to these programs.

Jobs and Workforce Development

  • Mandatory safety training for all construction workers and supervisors.
  • Leveling the playing field for responsible contractors that provide safe, thriving careers for their employees.
  • Construction careers for individuals with barriers to employment, especially from Promise Zones.
  • Inclusion of minority contractors.

Community Advisory Committee

  • A Joint Committee will be established with community representation. This Committee will oversee the implementation of the CBA, monitor successes, ensure compliance with the terms of the CBA, and produce an annual public report.

SUN remains steadfast in this fight and recommits ourselves to ensuring development benefits all Nashvillians. “For many Nashvillans, this marks the end of hopelessness and the beginning of a new and better Nashville. Housing our residents and improving conditions for workers is the responsibility of the people, the electorate, and developers,” said Odessa Kelly, Co-Chair of Stand Up Nashville. “We call on our elected representatives to ensure safe and just working conditions for the hardworking men and women who build this city. No developer should get such huge taxpayer subsidies and not be held to a high standard of providing a safe and dignified job to workers in our city.”

(Visit SUN’s website)

Requiring higher wages would pay off in more home-building: Guest commentary

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Murtaza Baxamusa
POSTED: 04/28/17, 9:50 AM PDT

 

For the second straight year, the California Legislature is considering cutting red tape for developers and builders in an effort to encourage construction of more housing. This approach suggests that the state’s affordable-housing crisis is entirely the result of too many regulations and too much public input inhibiting supply.

Not exactly.

A recent study analyzing industry and economic census data by Smart Cities Prevail (SCP) revealed that it takes 13 percent more workers to produce residential housing today than it did 20 years ago. And while construction profits have increased 50 percent more than the cost of labor or materials, inflation-adjusted wages for blue-collar construction workers have actually decreased by 25 percent.

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. And by leading a race to the bottom for productivity and wages, the industry has helped create California’s housing crisis.

If we truly want to solve this problem, this dynamic needs to change.

There are more than a million Californians who work in construction. Yet many working Californians simply don’t make enough money to afford a roof over the head of their family.

(Read More)

Housing Affordability Prevailing Wage Standards Can Help Improve Housing Affordability

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

STUDY: LINKING PREVAILING WAGE STANDARDS WITH HOUSING REFORMS WOULD CLOSE AFFORDABILITY GAP

Alex Lantsberg, MCP, AICP

A brand new study by Smart Cities Prevail shows that linking prevailing wage standards with proposed reforms to streamline new housing development would close the affordability gap, save state and local governments tens of millions of dollars annually, and disproportionately benefit communities of color.

Overall, the study notes that it takes 13% more workers today to match the residential housing output that California enjoyed just twenty years ago. This steep decline in productivity has been matched by a 25% decline in inflation-adjusted blue-collar construction wages (the median wage is just $35,000 per year) and housing prices that have soared as high as 54% in the Bay Area.

“A productivity renaissance will be necessary to produce housing units in the numbers that will noticeably shave what Californians pay for housing,” said study author Alex Lantsberg. “Studies have repeatedly shown that the best way to realize that goal is by incorporating prevailing wage standards.”

Prevailing wage is a minimum wage for blue-collar construction work that reflects local market rates for different skilled crafts. Long associated with stronger economic outcomes and more local hiring, most research shows that prevailing wages have no significant impact on total project costs because they promote higher skilled craftsmanship. This triggers increases in productivity and efficiency as high as 15%, reduced reliance on taxpayer funded public assistance programs, and prevents workforce shortages by helping to fund the apprenticeship programs that are used to meet California’s construction workforce training needs.

(Read More)

(Full PDF Copy of Study)

Prevailing Wage Violation Leads to $255,000 Settlement With Attorney General

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

02/13/2017
By: Jonathon Sizemore

A contractor and a developer are to pay $255,000 for violating the New York False Claims Act and not paying workers a prevailing wage. On February 9, 2017, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a settlement agreement with a New York City-based general contractor and a developer for failing to pay a prevailing wage to workers at their public works project.

The contractor, A. Aleem Construction Inc., and the developer, West 131st Street Development Corp., were both participants in the Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program of the Department of Housing Preservations and Development. The program was intended to enable neighborhood-based private property managers to own and manage clusters of occupied and vacant city-owned buildings. Buildings selected for the program are sold to the Neighborhood Partnership Housing Development Fund Corporation and then leased to the participants. The participants then oversee the rehabilitation and design of the buildings with general contractors. The program is partially funded with federal money.

(Read More)