A shame though it be to spend a sunny Saturday indoors, sometimes it’s necessary to take care of an old house. Today we convened on Roselawn St. on Detroit’s west side with trainees from a pilot workforce development program. The program enlists Detroit Housing Commission residents and trains them in energy modeling, energy analysis, and hands-on building envelope retrofit work. Kevin McNeely (McNeely Building Group) led the training session on the analysis and modeling, which used software like SketchUp to copy floor plans, while a collaborative effort brought together local contractors with the trainees for on-site work. The end goal is to scale the program to create a pipeline for skilled trades training for Detroit Housing Commission residents. The house on Roselawn was used as part of Southwest Housing Solutions‘ partnership housing development program in partnership with the Detroit Land Bank Authority and Talmer Bank (edit: Chemical Bank, later TCF Bank).
