Background 

In 2004 the Authority appropriated $700,000 towards an 18-month pilot initiative, spearheaded by Commissioner Sophie Maxwell and Mayor Gavin Newsom, to create CityBuild, a program coordinating workforce training and job placement for City-sponsored construction projects . Since then, 88 local residents have graduated from CityBuild Academy, a state-of-the-art pre-apprenticeship training facility created to fill a critical gap in the City's construction workforce delivery system. The third CityBuild class of 40 students begins Spring 2007. A further measure of CityBuild's success during 2006 is the number of local residents introduced into the construction industry, a local economic growth sector that pays above-average wages and benefits for workers with less than a college education. Since September 2005, CityBuild has placed a total of 262 local residents in skilled trade positions, including 78 CityBuild Academy graduates. The remaining 184 placements include both journey people and new apprentices recruited through community based partner organizations and the City's One Stop System.

CityBuild placements have garnered wages between $13.72 and $29.68 per hour plus benefits, with the hourly wage averaging between $17 and $18 per hour. This compares favorably with the City's own living wage standard for all City contractors, currently set at $10.77 per hour. Prior to CityBuild Academy there was no comparable citywide construction training center in San Francisco. Indeed, the City did not have the capacity to place, track and monitor 200+ individuals on City-sponsored projects within a single year. These opportunities were simply not available on such a wide scale to local residents wishing to enter the construction industry. We hope to build on the success of CityBuild by developing a professional services track to include services such as drafting, specialized construction administrative services, and construction project management.