Community Development Corporation of Brownsville
C
larence Lee Jimmie dropped out of high school in the 11th grade and soon realized it was a mistake. Then he discovered the Community Development Corporation of Brownsville’s (CDCB) YouthBuild program, a dropout recovery and affordable low-income housing construction program. Through CDCB, Jimmie was able to earn his GED and is now enrolled in classes at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College while looking for a job. He describes YouthBuild as his “second chance.” The YouthBuild program links job training, classroom instruction, and affordable housing construction to help high school dropouts earn their GED. The program also includes child-care, transportation, a training stipend, and higher education financial assistance. Since 1996, it has been awarded nine HUD YouthBuild grants for a total of $5.3 million. This funding has allowed 408 students to participate in the program. Of the students who enrolled, 237 graduated after building 99 homes (58 percent). In addition, regardless of whether they graduated from the program or not, 114 enrolled students (28 percent) obtained their GED and 232 enrolled students (57 percent) got a job or went on to college. Students do not have to
graduate from the program or obtain their GED to benefit from participating; many got jobs along the way through CDCB’s job placement program, while others increased their educational placement. The Community Development Corporation of Brownsville (CDCB) was founded in 1974 and has since been providing safe, decent, and affordable housing, loans, and financial education to residents of the City of Brownsville, southern Cameron County, and surrounding communities. They are currently the largest non-profit single family affordable housing provider for homeownership in Texas. Since 1997 they have built and/or financed 2,106 affordable homes in their service area. In 2006 alone, CDCB provided 85 affordable homes and since 1998 they have produced nine percent of all new homes in the area. They are located in Brownsville
Houses in Brownsville before reconstruction.
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Building a Future