Partner Highlight: PV Jobs, Building A Strategy to Combat Homelessness in Los Angeles

May 2019 Graduates of the PVJOBS Program

PVJOBS is a nonprofit organization that was formed in 1998 with a mission to place at-risk and disadvantaged youth, adults and veterans into career-track employment in construction and other industries. PVJOBS was originally formed to fulfill a Los Angeles City Council mandate to provide at-risk residents with construction job opportunities at the Playa Vista development site. Through this contract, PVJOBS developed a model that places at-risk and disadvantaged youth, adults and veterans into career-track employment opportunities.

The program design was so successful, that the CRA-LA, LA Public Works, Port of LA, the High Speed Rail and Metro have since modeled their construction hiring programs after the PVJOBS model. The PVJOBS model is now being replicated across the United States and Canada. Cities such as Quebec, Chicago, Boston, Denver and Baltimore are all designing local/at-risk client hiring programs in construction, retail, manufacturing and professional occupations, similar to that of PVJOBS. The model has served over 20,000 people and provided over 8,000 placements in the construction trades by PVJOBS alone.

Construction workers are especially needed in Los Angeles, where we have experienced a real estate boom without enough construction contractors to meet the growing need. PVJOBS fills this need by providing workforce development and job-placement programs for thousands of at-risk individuals and have maintained a retention rate of 87%. Furthermore, PVJOBS’ goal is to provide long term career-track employment opportunities, thus their job program is committed to supplying a minimum of 3000 hours of work to each worker. This is accomplished by placing workers in steady jobs and/or referring PVJOBS workers to similar trade work once they have completed employment contracts or have been laid off.

Today, PVJOBS maintains contracts with numerous development projects throughout greater Los Angeles. More than 130 community-based organizations (CBOs) and contractors have partnered with PVJOBS to refer disadvantaged individuals to the job program. In addition to CBOs and contractors, PVJOBS also partners with West LA Community College to conduct workforce development trainings for individuals who have been previously incarcerated.

LA LISC provided a loan to PVJOBS in order to bridge the receivables from three public contracts which serve the re-entry population that were either delayed in repayment or required substantial lead time for reimbursement. LISC’s line of credit allows PVJOBS to pay contract expenses and serve returning citizen clients, rather than dipping into their cash on hand and potentially hindering their ability to act as a social service.

We have seen this issue many times in Los Angeles – nonprofits that are providing necessary services to at-risk populations are having difficulty servicing public contracts. Given that they are paid on a reimbursement basis, some payments are often substantially delayed. In order to support these key community resources, LA LISC provides lines of credit and bridge loans to social service providers with public contracts.

We are proud to support PVJOBS and the work they do each day to provide employment opportunities to Los Angeles residents that need it most.