Great Idea Revisited: Housing Construction By Students

Occasionally, we receive some really great ideas in our inbox at Dorchester.Times@gmail.com.  

A couple of years ago, one of the best ideas of all time landed in our mailbox.  

We liked the idea so much that two years later we are running it again at the Times.  We think it's especially relevant given that two new homes have gone up in Dorchester in the last few months.

Here is a reprint of our Feb. 1, 2017 article:

Today's idea centers around Dorchester's need for family housing.

The reader who proposed it called it his "gap housing plan" to fill in vacant lots in and around our community.

Here are the essentials of the "gap housing" proposal:

• The plan would require school leaders and Dorchester's village board members to coordinate.

• Using residential lots donated or purchased by the city -- preferably empty or neglected lots within town -- Dorchester students who enroll in industrial arts classes would build a home over the course of one or two school years.

• Students working on the new house would specialize in areas such as interior design, construction, electrical, plumbing, roofing, etc.

• Instruction would supervised or provided by Southeast Community College educators from Milford, as well as area contractors and home builders, contracted by DPS.

• Profit from the sale of the home would be returned to DPS' industrial arts and vocational training programs to boost future efforts.

In an era of workforce shortages in the trades -- when educators and parents have awakened to the reality that young people need skills before they enter the real world -- this idea has merit.

We hope DPS and village leaders will give it some consideration.