The program was going to create thousands of jobs at a liveable wage, get those hard to hire people employed and at the same time reduce the carbon footprint all for about $20,000,000. A grand total of 14 people were hired and 3 houses refitted.
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Last year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced the city had won a coveted $20 million federal grant to invest in weatherization. The unglamorous work of insulating crawl spaces and attics had emerged as a silver bullet in a bleak economy – able to create jobs and shrink carbon footprint – and the announcement came with great fanfare.
McGinn had joined Vice President Joe Biden in the White House to make it. It came on the eve of Earth Day. It had heady goals: creating 2,000 living-wage jobs in Seattle and retrofitting 2,000 homes in poorer neighborhoods.
But more than a year later, Seattle's numbers are lackluster. As of last week, only three homes had been retrofitted and just 14 new jobs have emerged from the program. Many of the jobs are administrative, and not the entry-level pathways once dreamed of for low-income workers. Some people wonder if the original goals are now achievable.
"The jobs haven't surfaced yet," said Michael Woo, director of Got Green, a Seattle community organizing group focused on the environment and social justice.
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Seattle's 'green jobs' program a bust | Local & Regional | Seattle News, Weather, Sports, Breaking News | KOMO News
Remember stories like this when Obama pushes his latest jobs program.
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