Toll Brothers + At Risk Youth = Safer Neighborhoods?

Crazy, right? I think not.

This concept pulls together issues of education, crime, "financial literacy" and urban renewal. It should cost very little to implement. In broad brush strokes, it works like this:

1. Teams of four carefully selected at-risk youths while still in Juvee enter an intensive training program where they:
1. Get their GED
2. Learn basic trades skills
2. They phase into employment with a development company like, say, Toll Brothers where they, as a team, work specifically on gutting and renovating dilapidated multi-families in the neighborhood where the kids come from.
   
3. They move into the first building completed -- figure two two-bedroom apartments per building.
4. They continue to work, as a team, renovating three more buildings.
5. At the completion of the program, each buys one building from the developer who has held a small part of their salary in escrow to build up a down-payment.
   

Obviously, they'll need additional training in financial management and other landlord-type skills, but you get the gist of it.

These kinds of simple, scalable programs that marry diverse or even conflicting interests can transform our country. Let's make it happen.