Students revitalizing and building Green Bay homes to be sold
By MacLeod Hageman
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GREEN BAY, Michigan (WGBA) — The real estate market is hot right now, and two homes on Green Bay’s east side will be another option for buyers in the near future—thanks to the hard work of high school students.
It’s not a typical high school classroom, but bit by bit and board board, Green Bay students are learning how to build homes through the Bridges Construction and Renovation Program.
“You learn a lot of stuff. You make new friends, and you have fun,” said Green Bay High School Junior Dakotah Montez.
Montez says learning a trade motivates him to come to school every day.
“It’s a lot more fun. I like getting up in the morning and coming to this class rather than going and sitting in a classroom, because you move around, you get up, you wake up right away, and you just have fun and you’re building a house,” Montez said.
Neighborworks Green Bay President Noel Halverson says this is their biggest group of students in years with more than 20 students learning hands-on.
“We’re excited to be adding to the mix here and building some new homes on lots that have been vacant for a long time here on Day Street, and it’s just an incredible project,” Halverson.
Halverson says the project’s benefits are two-fold, offering additional options for home buyers in a competitive market while giving teens the experience they need to begin a career in construction—an industry Halverson says has experienced a drop in workforce.
“It’s great. These houses are being built on Day Street, and many years ago Day Street had some challenges, and we had some distressed housing along here, and now if you look at Day Street we have some new homes going up, we see houses being reinvested in. We see people taking care of their homes they live in and love, and it’s a really welcoming neighborhood,” Halverson said.
Students like Dakotah Montez says their hands-on work is inspiring them to do even more after high school.
“It’s definitely a good thing to learn for the future to get into the trades and stuff like that. My family—I want to help them a lot in the future, like building houses and stuff so it’s a lot cheaper,” Montez said.
School leaders say these homes will be listed once the projects are done, and we hope to be invited back after the project is finished.
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