Base camps should mean jobs for young Black Chicagoans
The city council should back hiring local youth
There isn’t a more visible evangelist for Chicago youth than Mayor Brandon Johnson. One of the widest planks in the Johnson platform was to support the city’s young people. In the four months since he has been in office, Johnson has defended or deflected criticism about teens and young adults in many instances when many found their behaviors despicable.
Like most mayors, and mayoral candidates before him, Johnson championed jobs for young people as a tool for reducing violence in the city. He even put out appeals to the business community to add youth to their employee rosters. That point is open to debate.
What we do know however is the unemployment rate for Chicagoans 16-19 years old is 19 perent; and 12 perent for those etween 20-24 years old. That translates to 10s of thousands of young people being without a basic legal income. The research shows those numbers are disproportionate among Black youth.
Now that the City of Chicago has signed a $29 million-plus contract with Garda World Federal Services LLC; the mayor is perfectly positioned to walk the walk on jobs for young people. Garda’s contract is to provide migrant temporary housing.
According to the contract the City signed “Within each ClearSpan, we will include cots and linens. … Additionally, with both our outdoors and indoors lodging options, we are able to provide a morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) area either within the hard-sided structure or as an exterior tent. This would be a tented facility with lights, power, HVAC and flooring. This area would also include tables and chairs for reading and doing personal paperwork.”
Johnson can leverage the contract and have Gardia commit to hiring young Chicagoans, especially those who have difficulty obtaining jobs, to be part of the teams that construct the tents. The company calls the structures “ClearSpan.”
A visit to the Garda website shows the company is in the hiring mode. The Chicago City Council should join the mayor is a push for employing young Black people. After all, erecting tents is a skill that can be developed in short order, and requires only the most basic education.
Granted, tent-building is not a skill that is in high demand. However, for some who have struggled landing a job; this kind of work will signal the person has the discipline to hold down a job, work with others, as well as take directions. That builds resumes expotentially faster than the one they may currently have. Besides setting up the tents, one would guess there would be other jobs, including maintenance, security, food delivery or prep, that are ongoing at the sites.
The Johnson Administration and city council could also look into steps to help young people establish businesses which Garda would sub-scontract work to-for instance a laundry service for the blankets and sheets.
The City has the resources to track the young people who are hired and monitor their performance. By no means should these workers be given the impression that regardless of what they do or don’t do on-site means they can’t be taken off the payroll.
Although the work is likely to only last a few months, it will do something hanging out or going from potential employer to potential employer won’t do -put money in their pockets.
