How the new National Hispanic Construction Alliance will bolster Latino career growth
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals launched a new trade organization on Monday, focused on strengthening Latino representation and business growth opportunities in the construction industry.
The newly established National Hispanic Construction Alliance (NHCA), seeks to bolster the role of Latinos in contracting in an effort to address labor shortfalls and the lack of managerial jobs in the homebuilding industry. Hispanic workers accounted for 30% of those employed in the construction industry in 2020, the latest data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. However only 14.3% were construction managers.
The announcement also comes as the construction sector faces recruitment challenges, combined with an aging workforce.
“Housing affordability is in the midst of a historic crisis in part because of the exceptionally tight construction labor market.” Gary Acosta, Co-Founder and CEO of NAHREP, told Yahoo Finance. “The partnership between NAHREP and NHCA will establish the first national platform focused on expansion and professional development of the more than one million Hispanics...in the construction industry.”
Veteran construction industry executive George Carrillo will serve as the CEO of the new trade organization. Carrillo was formerly Executive Director of LatinoBuilt, a nonprofit led by Latino-owned business contractors working with community and trade partners to improve opportunities in construction for Latino-owned businesses in Oregon.
NAHREP is underwriting the launch of the NCHA, but the nonprofit aims to be self-sustaining moving forward.
“Strengthening the role of the Latino contractor is essential to addressing labor shortfalls in the home builder industry and the housing industry in general,” said Carrillo in a statement.
According to Carrillo, The National Hispanic Construction Alliance will seek to address these issues by accessing capital to help support, among other things, the expansion of small business owners in construction — and providing education opportunities, such as managerial training.
Hispanic business owners, for example, have historically had difficulty accessing funds or obtaining business loans from banks and traditional lenders. According to Stanford, only 20% of Latino-owned businesses that asked for loans exceeding $100,000 were approved, compared to 50% of white-owned companies. The survey, conducted by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative in 2020 among 3,500 white- and 3,500 Latino-owned businesses found that both groups had similar credit risk and liquidity profiles.
“One of the things that we need to address immediately is the accessibility to capital. We need to be able to support our small business owners and be able to grow their construction companies.” Carrillo told Yahoo Finance.
Such steps, he added, can help improve the construction industry’s labor shortage. According to the National Association of Home Builders, the US needs to add 723,000 new workers each year to meet rising demand and help address the nation’s 1.5 million home shortage.
“We have such an issue with a workforce shortage. Yet we have so many people living in the shadows and are working in the shadows due to the fear of a failed immigration policy,” Carrillo said. “I want this association to be front and forward working with lawmakers and making the appropriate policy changes, to give peace to our community to let our community know that the American Dream is still alive and that you are welcomed here.”
Gabriella Cruz-Martinez is a personal finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @__gabriellacruz.
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