"'I'm not sure what I'm going to do next': Students scramble to find housing with St. Paul Job Corps Center set to close" (KARE11, 6/2/25)
ST PAUL, Minn. — A local center that houses teens and young adults and helps them find jobs says it's closing with just days' notice due to a federal "pause" in operations.
"This has been very, very devastating," said Kaila Broad, Business Engagement Specialist for the Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps Center, who is among 100 staff members set to lose her job. "I'm not worried about me, I'm worried about the kids. It just doesn't make sense.
"We take in kids who are 16-24, they can't have a criminal record and they can't be on drugs. A lot of them came from being homeless. This was a place for them to be... to learn a trade, to eventually go out and be a tax-paying citizen."
Despite a news release from the U.S. Department of Labor describing a "phased pause in operations" by June 30, Broad says the contractor-operated center in St. Paul learned that it would be losing its contract on Thursday, with an initial deadline of Tuesday to move students out.