BOWLING GREEN, Mo. – A new initiative that calls for houses to be built inside the men’s prison at Bowling Green hopes to get off the ground next spring. The Aspire Partnership Prison Homes Program has been in the works for several years, and is an effort of NECAC and the Carpenters District Council of Greater St. Louis Joint Apprentice Program.

Plans were formally announced during the Tri-State Housing Summit hosted by NECAC and its regional partners last summer in Quincy, Ill. The completed houses would be a little over 500 square feet and would be available for purchase for around $45,000. A foundation, utility hookups and transportation would be an additional cost.

The Carpenters Union and its apprentices would oversee construction, expected to take a little more than a month each. NECAC would offer homeownership classes to buyers and oversee sales. The finished homes would be trucked to the purchaser’s site. NECAC developed Aspire based upon a similar program in South Dakota. Details are still being worked out, but NECAC is working with the Missouri Department of Corrections to get the program going.