Ex-inmates to help fill construction shortage

SIERRA VISTA – Four men moved hurriedly in the biting December cold, applying gray stucco to drywall near the entrance of a five-bedroom house in a new subdivision in this southern Arizona city.

Across the street, a worker installed the driveway for another house. Down the street, the wooden frame of another home sat waiting for workers to finish the job.

The housing crisis and recession was felt hardest in rural communities like this one, and it has taken longer for the economy to rebound here than in the state’s large cities, such as Phoenix and Tucson.

After several years of slow growth, demand is finally picking up in Cochise County, developer Rick Coffman said. But the area’s construction industry has hit a significant roadblock: not enough workers to keep up with demand.

“Virtually everyone has been complaining about the labor shortage . ... It has slowed down production,” Coffman said, the senior vice president for Castle and Cooke, a Sierra Vista construction company. “This is a problem that affects our ... ability to deliver the homes that we sell.”

For several months, Coffman mulled ways to fill those jobs using former inmates.

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels was open to the idea. And they eventually formalized a program, “Framing our Future,” which kicked off this month.

The county’s top lawman calls it a win-win — a way to tackle a labor shortage, and increase public safety by reducing recidivism and preparing inmates for full-time jobs.

“I believe in consequences and I believe in reasonable punishment,” Dannels said. “But I also believe in getting them back on track. And with this pro-

gram, if it helps them get back on track we’ll refer them.”

There are no statistics on the labor shortage in the county. But companies offer anecdotal evidence and their unfilled job openings as proof. They say it’s not just positions for skilled workers but unskilled ones as well that are hard to fill.

Tait Wilcox, director of construction for Castle and Cooke, said that while the company doesn’t have unfilled jobs, it still runs into problems because its contractors often can’t find enough workers.

“A typical timeline to build a house is like four weeks or a month,” he said. “We’re ... up to seven months right now because there is just not the staff underneath any of our contractors to build and keep up with just a normal, small pace of increase.”

Ben Carter leads the Southeastern Arizona Contractors Association, which is made up of about 50 developers, subcontractors and other construction-related companies.

Most are based in Sierra Vista, the county’s largest city.

He said the labor shortage is related to the recession. The population of Cochise County, not much larger than that of the city of Surprise, decreased by almost 1,000 people a year since 2010, according to most recent estimates for the U.S. Census.

As the county struggled to rebound, he said, experienced workers looked elsewhere to make a living. That has hit companies especially hard because they had to invest more in training to replace the employees they lost.

“All the qualified help that didn’t have jobs, they went out and found jobs. They relocated to find positions,” Carter added. “All the guys we’re hiring now have very little experience in construction, and we happen to do a lot more training that we were in past years, due to that shortage of qualified help that has left.”

Making it tougher is that fewer people are looking for work. According to Arizona’s Office of Economic Opportunity, the unemployment rate in Cochise County decreased from 5.9 percent in January 2017 to 4.9 percent in November.

Framing Our Future will function as a referral program.

The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office will make initial contact with potential workers and refer any interested individuals tothe Southeastern Arizona Contractors Association.

The program is not targeted toward current inmates, but rather those who have completed their sentences or individuals who deputies have booked or otherwise come in contact with.

“We’re not really concentrating on the violent offenders,” Dannels said. “We’re looking at those that are down on their luck, those that can contribute to society that still want to contribute to society and are willing.”

Deputies will provide a questionnaire to individuals they book into jail, asking if they have experience in construction and if they’re interested in getting a job.

If they are, deputies refer them to SACA, which will pass along the application to its members. Individual companies will be responsible for vetting each applicant. As part of the program, SACA will visit the jail once a month to talk to inmates interested in jobs after they complete their sentences or are released.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the ex-offenders. They tend to have issues getting employment after getting out of jail or prison,” Vickie Simmons said.

Her non-profit Arizona@Work is one of several community groups involved in helping former inmates.

With funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, Simmons’ organization can help pay for training for up to six months.

“If someone is hired then, depending on the position, if it’s a high-demand occupation and they found the right person ... we can assist the employer by paying up to 50 percent of the gross wages of that person while they’re in that training period,” she said.

The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office booked more than 6,200 individuals in 2017. Dannels said that if the program helps at least one former inmate get back on track, it will have been a success. Although, he has set loftier aspirations.

“We’re excited about the program,” Dannels said. “If it turns out to be very successful, we’ll build it here locally ... but also take it to a state level and a national level.”