Public housing residents learn painting skills

By Angela Hokanson, Bay City News Service

March 13, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom showed his support Wednesday for a class of low-income San Francisco residents training to be professional painters through a new pilot program.

The program is a public-private partnership involving the Sherwin-Williams Paint Co., the San Francisco Housing Authority, and the San Francisco Painter's Union.

More than 120 residents of San Francisco public housing have gone through the program since its establishment two years ago. Two-thirds of the program's graduates have secured jobs or returned to school, according to the Mayor's office.

The program grew out of recognition of the demand for professional painters and an interest in helping public housing residents gain job training and find employment, the Mayor's office reported.

"The spirit shown by these residents through their active involvement in this training is testimony to their desire to learn and make a difference," Newsom said Wednesday.

Participants in the program take five days of classroom instruction on painting, and spend five days applying their new skills painting apartments in the Sunnydale housing development.

The program's most recent class of students was scheduled to graduate on Friday, according to the Mayor's office.

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