Youths Find Work Pays Better Than Crime : Community: Under a county- and city-sponsored program, young men in Stanton who have had trouble with the law are apprenticed to help build a senior housing project--and rebuild their own lives.

Baltazar Medina has no time to mess around.

He has traded drugs for a hard hat. Now, instead of gangbanging, he pounds nails into lumber, helping to build homes for the elderly.

At 16, Medina’s life seemed headed for trouble, he said. He did drugs, was a gang member and had seen the inside of a jail more than once. Now, at 23, Medina is too busy to “kick back” anymore.

He arrives at work at 6:30 a.m. every day with tools in hand and a strong back. He works peaceably alongside former members of rival gangs. At the end of the day, he heads home, helps with family duties and then goes to sleep in preparation for another day of hard work.

Medina is one of about 30 at-risk young men who are trying to rebuild their lives through a program aimed at training and employing Stanton residents who have had previous scuffles with the law.

Through a county- and city-supported program, a number of employers have agreed to offer hard-working men such as Medina a paycheck and possibly a permanent job, despite past gang affiliations and criminal records. In Stanton, the jobs are at the construction site of a $25-million apartment complex for senior citizens, funded by the city and the county.

“What we’ve done is opened the door to guys who five months ago were killing each other,” said Joe Brooks, the project’s general contractor with W.E. O’Neil. “Now they’re here trying to improve their community.”

“I don’t care what they did in the past,” O’Neil said. “If they want to work, we work them. They’re all the same here. No alliances--same uniforms, same colors, same hard hat.”

Stanton officials recently urged major developers to hire high-risk young people from the community. Jan Czuker, the developer who holds a contract with the city to build the Stanton Park Place apartment complex, said it makes sense.

“If you don’t employ them, they end up breaking into buildings and stealing stuff anyway,” said Czuker, owner and president of Jan Development Co. “We’re teaching them a trade, and it seems to be working.”

When plans for the construction of Stanton Park Place were being drawn up two years ago, then-Councilman Sal Sapien and county housing and redevelopment director Bob Pusavat met with Czuker to create jobs for local residents.

City and county officials are trying to develop similar arrangements with other major employers. Pusavat said similar programs have been established with the county’s sanitation and transit districts and major companies such as Boyd Wheels and Smith Food King.

In its contract with the city, Jan Development Co. agreed to offer apprenticeships to Stanton’s at-risk youths.

All of the recruits who entered the program in March have had some trouble with the law, said Brooks, who oversees the program. Some have served repeated terms in prison for drug dealing. Others have been in jail for minor crimes, such as joy riding or petty theft. Criminal records are not checked. Prospective employees need only show a willingness to work, Brooks said.

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The idea is to make use of a ready work force and create a bond between the young men and their neighborhood, Brooks said.

Manuel Ortiz, 25, who was recruited into the employment program at its outset, said that being a Stanton resident has made it difficult to find jobs because the city has a gang reputation.

“Just because you’re from Stanton doesn’t mean you’re a gang member,” Ortiz said.

Arrested once for drug use, Ortiz said he has never belonged to a gang.

“I’m just trying to keep busy and out of trouble. I’m here to improve myself,” he said, adding that he would like to eventually take college courses at night.

Born and raised in Stanton, Ortiz said he wants to contribute to the city. “I might even end up in this [senior housing project] someday and be playing checkers with the guys,” he said.

The Stanton Park Place construction site, in the heart of the city, is within walking distance from home for many of the young men building it.

The apprenticeship may be temporary, but Medina said the experience is keeping him away from gang life.

“I’m not in the streets anymore,” Medina said. “I like construction work. Everybody’s the same. Race doesn’t mean anything.”

Violence among three major gangs from Benedict Tract, Crow Village and La Colonia has lessened, Stanton residents said. To help alleviate gang tensions, organizers of the employment program have recruited young men from all three neighborhoods.

Bill Bowers, a subcontractor who supervises the workers, said that there is no place for gang grudges on the site.

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“Once they’re at work, there’s only one job,” Bowers said. “There is no gang turf here. I tell them, ‘You may have been the boss of your gang, but now I’m the boss.’ . . .

“We haven’t had one bit of racial or territorial tension. It’s been really pleasant.”

Brooks acknowledged that there are risks involved in hiring unskilled youths.

“But if we don’t employ them, who will?” Brooks asked. “I watch these guys work hard. They’re tired after work and stay off the streets.”

Some of the recruits have dropped out, he said, but others may earn a permanent job.

Bowers plans to offer Medina more work and a raise after the Stanton Park Place project is completed by next March. Medina’s family said he now spends most of his free time at home cleaning and taking care of his niece instead of disappearing into the streets at night.

“Before, he would do nothing. He’d just come home, shower, eat and sleep,” said his sister Elvia Medina, 18. “Now when I look at him, I see a totally different person. He wants to straighten out so he can have a life.”

Baltazar Medina now helps pay rent at home and is saving up to buy a car from his older sister.

Although working from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day can be tiring, Medina said, the more he works, the more motivated he becomes.

“I’m doing this to help myself and for my mom,” Medina said. “My family was always supportive when I got in trouble. I can’t walk away from them.”