Labor shortage could hamper Harvey reconstruction

LC General Contractors employees Raul Gutierrez, left, and Misael Castillo, right, help to clear out a flooded home in Bellaire. The local contractors, accredited by the BBB, were remodeling the home when Harvey hit and transitioned from fixing the home to gutting it. less LC General Contractors employees Raul Gutierrez, left, and Misael Castillo, right, help to clear out a flooded home in Bellaire. The local contractors, accredited by the BBB, were remodeling the home when ... more Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff Image 1 of / 98 Caption Close Labor shortage could hamper Harvey reconstruction 1 / 98 Back to Gallery

Rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey will be slowed by not only the scope of the storm's damage but also an ongoing labor shortage in the construction industry, experts say.

Potentially hundreds of thousands of homes will need repairs in the Houston region alone, Texas Association of Builders executive director Scott Norman said. These projects must compete in the coming months with Corpus Christi, Rockport and surrounding areas that suffered extensive wind and water damage.

Meanwhile, contracting firms worry about finding enough workers with proper training and certification. As of July, there were nearly 2 million fewer construction and manufacturing workers in the U.S. than at the start of the last recession, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

"There is not enough skilled labor to meet this challenge today, immediately," Norman said.

The Associated General Contractors of America surveyed construction companies last month and found that 70 percent of them were having a hard time filling hourly craft positions. The National Association of Home Builders reported about a 75 percent labor and subcontractor shortage in carpentry alone.

In the months prior to Harvey's Aug. 25 landfall, Norman said, a reduction in the size of work crews due to this shortage drove up the average time to build a new home in Texas by one or two months.

"We were experiencing a labor shortage before the storm," he said, adding that Harvey "is only going to exacerbate it."

More Information Post-Harvey home repair Local construction and contracting firms offer the following advice to Houstonians seeking home repairs in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey: Don't pay in cash. Don't pay for any work up front. Make sure there's a written contract available for all work before any repairs begin. See if the firm has a permanent office that has been open at least one year. Check reviews of the firm's past work on websites such as the Better Business Bureau.

Construction firms and industry experts urge homeowners seeking repairs to do their homework before hiring a contractor. Beware of those with questionable licensing and training certification that may be hoping to cash in on post-storm desperation, said Conrad Lazo, a Florida construction law and litigation attorney.

In the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, Lazo said, there often is a no-questions-asked policy when it comes to verifying a contractor's permitting and licenses. The goal is simply to find willing workers, and there are plenty of firms from states where housing demand has not been as robust as in Texas, he added.

Once the initial cleanup stage is complete, Lazo said, full recovery will likely take a long time and a lot of money because of an imbalance in supply and demand; price hikes in construction materials, particularly lumber; and a decline in an unskilled, usually cheaper, undocumented labor pool.

"This is a tsunami of bad factors that will make construction projects in Houston much harder," Lazo said.

A 2006 study by Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley found a quarter of the construction workers rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina were undocumented - and underpaid. Yet migration across the Mexican border has been declining, in part because of economic improvements in Mexico.

Stan Marek, CEO of Houston-based Marek Construction, said he also worries how many undocumented workers would even want to join the Harvey recovery effort due to anti-immigrant sentiment nationally and in Texas, as expressed in the law cracking down on "sanctuary cities." The law would allow police officers to question a person's legal status. It was supposed to have taken effect Friday, but a federal judge in San Antonio has temporarily blocked it.

Such legal efforts could dissuade the undocumented community from offering their services, Marek said.

Yet he hopes federal officials can create a means to legally mobilize the local undocumented workforce. That would help close the construction labor gap in the state and minimize the risk to workers of being exploited, he said.

Paul Puente, executive secretary of the Houston Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council, said he would rather recruit workers from within Texas or neighboring states.

"As we get people to come in, what we don't want to see if H2B visa workers taking away work from local laborers," Puente said, referring to the federal program that permits immigrant workers for specific classes of jobs.

Puente said he is confident local personnel will be up to the task ahead. He cited recent efforts by unions, community colleges and independent firms to offer apprenticeship programs for low- and middle-skills workers.

He said the best way to get recovery underway is to rely on high-skills workers while simultaneously encouraging more people to enroll in vocational programs so that they will be ready to join the yearslong rebuilding.

For that strategy to work, however, Norman of the state homebuilders association said everything from licensing departments to financing firms will need to scale up their operations so available workers can be deployed more quickly.

Given the scale of the challenge, he advises families eager to get construction projects moving to accept that this recovery will take time.

"People will have to be patient," he said.