SUSAN BALDRIGE | Staff WriterPeter Barber was noticing something about his employees at the end of every month.
The workers at his Two Dudes Painting Co. were often talking about landlord troubles and rental problems.
"It wasn't unusual for an employee to say that they had to move, and sometimes that created transportation problems for that employee to get to work," said Barber, who owns the 750 Poplar St. business with his partner, Brian McCaskey.
The owners of the 30-year-old business, with its iconic trademark VW vans, came up with an idea to help their employees buy their own homes, which they hope will help their business and the city.
Housing for employees
Although two large nonprofits — Lancaster General Hospital and Franklin & Marshall College — offer housing incentives to their employees in the city, Two Dudes Painting Co. will be the first private business in Lancaster County to offer such a program.
Community housing leaders couldn't be more excited.
"It's a good model and we hope others would do it, too," said Ray D'Agostino, executive director of the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership, which is covering the program's administrative costs at $100 per employee.
From left: Carmelo Colon, Peter Barber, Louie Ortiz, Brian McCaskey pose by one of the vans at Two Dudes Painting Company 750 Poplar St. Barber and McCaskey have owned the painting and wallpapering company for 30 years and became the first private business to offer a home-buying plan for their employees this year.
Barber said his company will give employees who have worked for the firm for at least one year an interest-free $5,000 loan toward the down payment or closing costs of a home purchase. After five years of employment, the loan is totally forgiven.
Another $5,000 may be available to the homebuyer through the Housing Opportunity Partnership, said D'Agostino.
"Actually, this is brilliant," said Dan Jurman, the CEO of the Community Action Partnership of Lancaster County, an agency that fights poverty.
Last year, Jurman served as chairman of Lancaster city Mayor Rick Gray's Commission to Combat Poverty, which released its plan in December.
"We're doing this in part to help stabilize our own workforce. We also think if we can help provide safe, stable and affordable housing, we get a better employee."
Peter Barber
"It aligns exactly with the plan and it's exciting to see the business sector's interest aligning with anti-poverty interests," said Jurman. "Its not been something we've been strategic about in the past."
"It's an issue in this entire region for companies that have a hard time filling positions," said D'Agostino. "This is a way that the employers can increase the retention rate of their employees."
"We're doing this in part to help stabilize our own workforce," Barber said of his 47 to 50 employees. "We also think if we can help provide safe, stable and affordable housing, we get a better employee."
The only parameters of the program is that the house must be purchased in Lancaster city.
"That helps the city, too," said Barber.
Immediate interest
As soon as apprentice painter Luis Ortiz saw the email from his employer about the housing program, he texted his wife, Elizabeth.
"Oh, she was so excited, we were so happy," Ortiz, a McCaskey grad who also serves in the U.S. Army Reserves, said. "We dream of owning a home."
He has worked for Two Dudes for nearly a year and has learned painting and wallpapering from the ground up.
"Oh, (my wife) was so excited, we were so happy. We dream of owning a home."
Luis Ortiz, painter
Ortiz, 27, is just the kind of employee Two Dudes would hate to lose. The company has invested in Ortiz's training and Barber has been impressed with his reliability and work ethic.
The cost to employers to replace workers and train new ones can be expensive, as much as one-fifth of a worker's annual salary, according to research done by The Center for American Progress, a national progressive public policy research and advocacy organization.
"It's exciting to see someone go first, and pilot this and put their toe in the water, " said Jurman.
Barber wishes a program like this had been around back when he and his wife were trying to buy a house.
"It took us nine years after we were married," said Barber. "It was worth it. For an individual or a family, buying a house can be a life-changing moment."
