Group of teens helping rehabilitate 2 abandoned homes in Cleveland

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - A group of local teens are spending their summer transforming two abandoned Cleveland houses into someone’s dream home.

“I feel that people want nice houses, so I will put all my effort into this house because I would want someone to put all their effort into my house,” said James King, senior at John Adams High School.

King is one of the 16 students involved in rehabilitating the houses.

He, along with the other teens, were trained by construction experts and are now OSHA certified.

This program was made possible by the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Ohio and the Cleveland Habitat for Humanity.

“Just to watch them progress and develop to where they don’t know how to use a screw gun to you say go build a wall, and a build a wall and they get it right,” said Larry Vandendriessche, volunteer at Habitat for Humanity.

The students get paid for working on the houses, but some of them tell us it’s not the money that keeps them coming back to help out.

“I’m not worried about the pay because I like it, I like to do it, this is my career, I like construction, to break things,” said King.

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