But amid the uncertainty, enrollment fell by about half, down from 24,000.

We have certainly stumbled over the last 12 to 24 months on whether or not Job Corps would survive, whether it would be successful.

And Brady's group and other partners are working to keep Job Corps relevant.

And so we have a lot of people in the system that are saying, "We've got to do better.

We've got to make this more effective."

I mean, their real education will begin when they get hired on their first job.

[laughs] That- that's right.

I, I, I started as a carpenter.

Like you, I learned more on the, on the job site than I learned in college, and I'm not putting down college for a lot of people.

We need lawyers, and doctors, and, and, uh, scientists, and so forth.

But, but we're, we're offering at HBI a opportunity to build a career path, and we're giving opportunity.

Google's money, the Home Depot has funded, uh, us for eight years now.

Isn't that cool? It's such a good feeling.

There is actual humanism down there and it needs real people to put this together.

Yeah, I think, you know, over the years, last 30 years, everybody had to go to college.

And the prestige and I think the honorable career path in the skilled trades has been forgotten.

I think we're bringing that back.

But to your point...

One of my proudest moments is driving through a subdivision that I developed and built 100 homes and showing my kids and named the streets.

And it was just, it's really rewarding that I've had that passed.

Did I see your name associated with the great city of Charlotte, North Carolina, Home Builders Institute? Because I swear I saw Charlotte underneath your list of places where people can grow.

But the other one is, specifically in the inner cities where you hear about there's no jobs there's no opportunities why would i want to work at a fast food job and not make any money and there's and we have all these programs and you know after school and how come we're not leaning more into that uh demographic and going hey listen you want to change your life and get out of the hood and have a life without you know um having to having to do illegal things um here go into the trades do this what what are we leaning into that in some areas more

We are at the Home Builders Institute and we have been for years.

We train and our students are underserved populations.

They're people of color.

They're second chance justice involved citizens.

They're transitioning military and veterans.

They're women.

What's broken about how we fund education that pushes kids towards college instead of the trades?

What do you mean by that?

Well, I, I'm talking about the data centers and the large corporations, the Googles, the Metas, the, uh, BlackRocks, the, uh, Fords.

Uh, large corporations are, are starting to put money into the skilled trades.

And, um, so because of AI and the data centers, um, we're needing more electricians, plumbers, and HVAC techs than ever before, and the fear is we don't have 'em, number one.

Number t- two is if, if we don't have 'em, they're gonna migrate from residential to that commercial, uh, short-term.

I don't know what short-term means.

Two to five years, depending on the moratoriums that states are putting on these data centers and what that looks like in the future.

What do you think of that move?

You can be retired at 40 with that kind of money flowing in, can't you?

That's a big number, Steve, and I think if I were to do it all over again, I'd build houses for 30-some years, and I had a bunch of money in, I always use this story, I had a bunch of money in land.

That was my toy.

That was my investment for the future.

The electricians, plumbers, HVAC, painters, drywallers, they had boats and cars and second homes.

They were thriving and are thriving.

You can graduate from high school and as you go through high school, get your pre-apprenticeship and get a little knowledge on electricians, on electrical or plumbing.

the

What do you think in terms of where we are now are the biggest issues facing home builders that are having a direct impact on our ability to close this supply gap?

Yeah, I mean...

You said a regulatory burden is a challenge to provide affordable supply.

And when you say regulatory burden, in large part, that means land restrictions or challenges to densities, zoning and those types of things.

I mean, that's a huge uphill climb when you go into a municipality and want to develop a piece of land.

I just recently, because still in the business with my brother, although not active on a day-to-day basis, we just bid out a 33-lot development in 2015.

I was selling lots for $35,000 in this same development.

Why is that? And how do we go to really mainstreaming and scaling some of these technologies that have been evolving for decades?