Transcripts For CNBC 60 Minutes On CNBC 20130116

[ male announcer ] send the aflac duck a getwell card at getwellduck. Com. [ticking] one of the threats from the Great Recession was the sudden surge in the number of abandoned houses. Vacant homes have become so ruinous to some neighborhoods that one city, cleveland, decided it had to find a solution. Perfectly good homes. Once worth 75,000 and 100,000 or more. Are being ripped to splinters in cleveland. [ticking] the new manned Space Program rocket was supposed to be called constellation. Mmhmm. And now you guys call it all cancellation. Unfortunately. They had been counting on a new Space Program in Brevard County, florida, for years, but it didnt happen. And liftoff. The final liftoff of atlantis. And after the last Space Shuttle mission touched down. This is a matter of national pride. Things around the Kennedy Space center changed in a way that may surprise you. [ticking] inside, you feel like a part of you has been ripped out from losing a job. 1 3 of the unemployed have been out of work for more than a year. Its been hard on them and the economy, but we found an experiment in retraining. [paper tears] the resume, very soon, will become an obsolete tool in the jobsearch process. That may just offer a way back. You just got a new job. Yes, i did. Brings a smile to my face. I see that. Welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. Im bob simon. In this edition, we look at two innovative experiments in the housing and job markets aimed at solving longterm problems caused by the Great Recession. And later on, we examine the impact on Brevard County, florida, of scuttling the Space Shuttle program. We begin with the housing industry. Chances are the home youre in isnt worth what it used to be. You may not have indulged in the real estate bubble with its liars loans and wall street greed, but you were stuck with the bill. And if you thought your home value couldnt drop any more, have a look up and down the block. You might say, there goes the neighborhood. One of the threats from the Great Recession was the sudden surge in the number of abandoned houses. As scott pelley reported in december 2011, vacant homes become so ruinous in some neighborhoods that one city, cleveland, decided it had to find a solution. Perfectly good homes. Worth 75,000, 100,000 or more a couple of years ago. Are being ripped to splinters in cleveland, Cuyahoga County, ohio. Here, the Great Recession left 1 5 of all houses vacant. The owners walked away because they couldnt or wouldnt keep paying on a mortgage debt that can be twice the value of the home. Cleveland waited four years for home values to recover, but in 2011, they decided to face facts and bury the dead. Why destroy them . Jim rokakis, a former county treasurer, showed us. Were looking at a neighborhood that has almost as many vacant houses awaiting demolition as there are houses with People Living in them. We have one here. One here. One there. Rokakis is leading the effort to tear down thousands of abandoned homes because theyre rotting their neighborhoods from the inside out. It often starts, he told us, when a vacant house becomes an open house to thieves. Its a nice house from the roof to about here. And then down here, its been ripped to pieces. Whats going on . Well, this is typical, because this is as high as they could reach without using ladders. Theyve ripped off the aluminum siding, which youll see on most of these houses. The aluminum and the vinyl siding comes off. Its getting about a buck a pound. Essentially, foreclosure scavengers have been through here. The thieves have gone hightech. They know when evictions are occurring cause theyre posted online. And they will follow the sheriff. Theyre usually there that afternoon or that evening. So in here, what youre gonna see well, i guess they took everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink, right . The sink is gone. The plumbing is gone in this house. All the copper, anything metal that had value is gone. The furnace is gone. The light fixture. Light fixture came out is gone. How often is this happening in cleveland . This happens every day. And the foreclosure crisis creates this spiral, because as a result of this, people are now more likely to leave neighborhoods like this, and as they leave, the scavengers come in and do the same thing to the house next door or across the street. To make the house next door worth more instead of less, vacant land created by demolition is often given to the neighbors and sometimes turned into fields or gardens. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County believe that only by turning the failures of the Great Recession into green space can they stabilize the value of whats left. Otherwise, the scourge would keep spreading. When you see a house that the scavengers have torn apart like this one, what does it do to the guy next door . It clearly makes his house worth a lot less money, because when youve got four, five, six vacant houses on a street like this, your house isnt worth a percentage less; its just worthless. Its probably worth about 30. [laughs] i mean, seriously. Who knows . Its sad. Its really sad. Roberta bryant lives at the end of the street in a house made essentially worthless by her vacant neighbors. Do you think, in this neighborhood, you could even sell this house if you wanted to . No. I dont think anybody would buy it. Are you interested . [laughs] i dont live in cleveland. Well, this could be your summer home. In theory, there shouldnt be this many abandoned houses. When homeowners walk away, the bank is supposed to take responsibility. But one littleknown feature of the Great Recession is that many banks are walking away too, unwilling to maintain a house whose value has crashed. Very often a bank will take a property to the point of foreclosure but wont go to sheriffs sale, cause they dont want that property. They dont want the responsibility, the 8,000 to 10,000 bill that comes with tearing this house down. Former county treasurer jim rokakis says some banks have turned their backs on a blight they created. Well, in a normal Real Estate Market, people are out looking for loans. In the perverse Real Estate Market we created in this country, you know, during the period2000, 2006 this wasnt people looking for money; this was money looking for people. And thats why so many of those loans were made without down payments and without verification of income, and i might also add, phony appraisals. And this is the result. This is the result. And its not just here. Its all over america. [ticking] coming up, looking for a bank bailout. Youre gonna have to write down principal balances, because if you dont write down the principal to something thats more realistic, it just guarantees that more people will walk away and more people will default. Banks and the foreclosure crisis when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. Executor of efficiency. You can spot an amateur from a mile away. While going shoeless and metalfree in seconds. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. Now this. Will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. Just like you. Go national. Go like a pro. Pull out the paper and. What . . An article that says a typical family pays 155,000 in wall street fees on their 401 k s . Seriously . Seriously. You dont believe it . Search it, 401k 155k. Then go to etrade. And roll over your old 401 k s to a new etrade retirement account. We have every type of retirement account. None of them charge annual fees, and all of them offer low cost investments. Why . Because were not your typical wall street firm, thats why. So you keep more of your money. Etrade. Less for us. More for you. [ male announcer ] dont just reject convention. Drown it out. Introducing the allnew 2013 lexus ls f sport. An entirely new pursuit. All over america, 11 million homeowners owe more than their house is worth. Theyre said to be underwater. And the truth is, more neighborhoods would collapse if it werent for people like linda bizzelle, who refuses to walk away from her mortgage even though it might be best. The Mortgage Company called me and said that i was getting ready to go into foreclosure. So i mailed a payment in that day, and it was the last of my savings. That you sent in on this mortgage thats underwater . Oh, yeah. Her house is worth 50,000, and she owes 100,000. A Financial Planner might tell her to put something away for retirement rather than pay a mortgage that will never recover, especially since she lost her job in nursing. What have you been cutting back on . Sometimes food. I would go to the food bank in order to make up the difference so that i wouldnt be completely hungry. Sometimes i wouldnt get my medications renewed. I take medication for high blood pressure. And my doctor could always tell when i didnt take them, and he said, oh, no. You cant do that. No, no. Youre living on unemployment right now . Yes. What about the next mortgage payment . Im gonna pray. Thats the best i can do. Im gonna pray that i find a job. When you think of it, her neighbors home values are being propped up by linda bizzelles fragile grip on the american dream. We found a lot of people spending their last dollar to keep their homes and therefore save their neighborhood. Gina bruno owes 50,000 more than her home is worth, and her dream house has turned into a money pit. The gas line needed to be replaced. The sewer line needed to be replaced. The plumbing was bad. The roof was leaking. Do you have any savings . No. No. No. So youre living paycheck to paycheck . Absolutely. Writing checks to the contractors and to the bank. Yep. I used to go out with friends and have dinner, and i just i dont do any of those things anymore. A few miles away, Beverly Anderson and her neighbors are the only thing standing between their neighborhood and utter ruin. For them, paying the mortgage is a matter of principle. Thats just how i was raised. Once you, you know you sign it, its a contract. You uphold what you can for as long as you can. These folks bought the first homes in what was supposed to be a 100house development outside cleveland called cinema park. But the developer went broke in the recession, leaving just six occupied homes surrounded by empty acres, roads to nowhere, and fireplugs with nothing to protect. Immediately when the boards went up, all of our mortgages went underwater our hopes, our dreams, our savings. Norma scotts predicament is typical around this table. 200,000 mortgage, 100,000 house. Still, all but one of these neighbors plan to keep on paying, including High School Teacher monica hubbard. Because i signed on the line. I made a promise. I made a commitment, and i can still afford it, basically. You know, there are lots of people all over the country, many thousands of people who are mailing the keys to the bank and walking away. They cant figure out how it makes sense to put more money into a mortgage thats underwater. Cant speak for them. I can only speak for me. And my reputation that i have to uphold. Your signature means something. It does. It does. Norma scott is the only one throwing in the towel. She stopped paying her mortgage when she got Breast Cancer and had to stop working for a while. I made the mortgage payments for as long as i could. And then the money just ran out. And then they sent you a letter last christmas eve. Yes, and foreclosed on my property. It seems to me that youre living daytoday, waiting for a telephone call or a letter from the sheriff. From the sheriff. The Cuyahoga County sheriff is doing 50 evictions a month. Mr. Waple. Okay, unfortunately, you know why were here. The eviction . Chris waple owned a restaurant, but when it went under, he couldnt make his mortgage payments, and so waple and his family were evicted from the house that hed lived in for 23 years. Hed raised five children here. That was more than three months ago that chris waple left this house, and its still vacant. Theres not a for sale sign in front of it, because the realtors tell us that if there are too many for sale signs in one block, it makes everything harder to sell. Just four doors down, Graham Jarvis learned that the hard way. His house has been on the market six months, but only six people have taken a look. Next door, Jennifer Wylie has seen the value of her home drop 50 . You cant see it in this neighborhood because theyre keeping up appearances, but 1 4 of the houses here have been emptied by foreclosure. And on this handsome block in welltodo cleveland heights, at least four vacant homes are scheduled for demolition. Former county treasurer jim rokakis says banks could stop the wrecking crews if they would only reduce the loan balances on underwater mortgages. Youre gonna have to write down principal balances. Because if you dont write down the principal to something thats more realistic, it just guarantees that more people will walk away and more people will default. Look, youre asking the banks to write down the principal on these houses, to take losses in the millions if not billions of dollars. Oh, hundreds of billions. Why would they do that . Arent you better off oh, lets say on a 150,000 mortgage preserving 75,000 in value as opposed to letting that house go vacant, possibly seeing the house vandalized and dropped to a value well below that . I mean, they helped to cause this mess. And its not gonna fix itself without their cooperation. Cuyahoga county ripped down 1,000 homes this year, and they have 20,000 more to go. Thatll cost about 150 million. All thats keeping other neighborhoods from the same fate are those 11 million underwater homeowners like linda bizzelle who stubbornly refuse to walk away. I want to keep my home. You know, when youve worked all your life. To get the american dream, you dont want to just walk away. You dont want to do that. You do whatever it takes to keep what you have. In response to our story, 60 minutes viewers were so moved by linda bizzelles story that their donations helped stop foreclosure proceedings on her home. And as of october 2012, she was still living in her house. [ticking] coming up, the Space Shuttles hard landing. What did seeing the last shuttle launch mean to you . I felt anger. Anger . Oh, yeah. Because this does not have to be the last launch. It doesnt have to end this way. I mean, it it just doesnt make any sense. It doesnt compute. And later, we look at the stigma of longterm unemployment. What have the last three years been like for you . You have those moments, you know, where youre the only one in the house, and youre sitting in front of the computer looking for a job, and you go, when is this ever gonna break for me . Thats ahead when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] so if you have a flat tire, dead battery, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geicos emergency roadside assistance is there 24 7. Oh dear, i got a flat tire. Hmmm. Uh. Yeah, can you find a take where its a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah . Yeah i got it right here. 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All three engines up and burning. There was nothing like it in the world. And liftoff. The final liftoff of atlantis. Arguably the greatest engineering achievement of man. At liftoff, it weighed 4 1 2 million pounds, its top speed 17,000 miles an hour. The Space Shuttle spreads its wings one final time for the start of a Sentimental Journey into history. It was built by the hands of people like lou hanna. It was the experience and the job of a lifetime. I was working on the pad one day with a friend of mine, and hes a crane operator too. And i ask himi said. How many other crane operators do you suppose that there are doing what were doing . Theres twoyou and me. Shuttle work wasnt just work. There was enormous pride in doing for america what no other workers in the world could even dare. Lou hanna manned a gigantic crane that cleared the platform before launch. He worked on the first shuttle in 1981. Americas first Space Shuttle. And the last, 135 missions later. What did seeing the last shuttle launch mean to you . I felt anger. Anger . Oh, yeah. Because this does not have to be the last launch. It doesnt have to end this way. I mean, it it just doesnt make any sense. It doesnt compute. And i guess im still in denial, because im thinking theyre gonna call me back one day. We got a launch coming up. We need your help. How can they do that . They did it to save 3 billion a year. At the Kennedy Space center, 7,000 workers lost their jobs. Main gear touchdown. The Space Shuttle pulls into port for the last time. 50 years of liftoffs are becoming 8 months of layoffs. Have a look around Brevard County. Its shrinking. Lots of people are moving away, taking businesses down with them. It was like, bam, gone. Gone. Gone. The work ethic that built the shuttle keeps chris milner fighting to hang on. How long did you work at the space center . Eight years. And your wife . 29 years. Both laid off . Both laid off. In the spirit of an entrepreneur, milner planned for the layoffs. He launched a landscape business on the side, and then he added a sign shop in this industrial park. Still, there was one thing he didnt plan on. Seafoodits gone. Yeah, theres nothing there. Edwards exterminating is the only one thats left. Its right around the corner. But basically, everythings empty. Its a nightmare. Everybody thats been laid off its a ripple effect. Businesses closing down it affects everybody else, and it affects me. The 7,000 layoffs at the space center triggered 7,000 more in the community. Unemployment has been close to 11 . People are moving away. People are going up north. Nothings happening here. I know people that moved all the way to seattle for a job. Left their house. Left the key in the front door. Here you go. Its gone. Milner had 12 employees in the lawn business. Now he has 3. You know, youre running these two businesses. Yes. How many hours a day are you working . Literally . Literally. Im here at 7 00 a. M. In the morning. And in the last couple weeks, ive been here until 1 00, 2 00 in the morning. My last day off was christmas. Working 17 hours a day 7 days a week cant be all that good for your health. No. My wifes worried. Shes scared. Shes told me that. And shes taken out a Life Insurance policy on him. But at the same time, she knows what i got to do. And the problem is, is we have a 12yearold at the house that doesnt understand, cause hes never had to go without. Hes constantly asking for mcdonalds. We dont get mcdonalds anymore. [ticking] coming up, confronting the new financial frontier. Well, we were lied to when obama came through. Gave us a lot of hope and supposedly a lot of change. Well, ive got change in my pocket, but the hope is gone. Thats ahead when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. Make it worth watching. The new 2013 lexus ls. An entirely new pursuit. Nothing. Are you stealing our Daughters School supplies and taking them to work . No, i was just looking for my stapler and my. This thing. I save money by using fedex ground and buy my own supplies. Thats a great idea. Im going to go. We got clients in today. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping at fedex office. Abecause what you dont know can savabouhurt you. Ce. Ping what if you didnt know that boxes by the curb. Make you a target for thieves . Or that dog bites account for a third of all home liability claims . What if you didnt know that one in seven drivers is uninsured . And that grease fires have to be smothered . The more you know, the better you can plan for whats ahead. Get smarter about your insurance. We are farmers bum pa dum, bum bum bum bum for over 60,000 california foster children, nights can feel long and lonely. I miss my sister. I miss my old school. I miss my room. I dont want special treatment. I just wanna feel normal. To help, sleep train is collecting pajamas for foster children, big and small. Bring your gift to any sleep train, and help make a Foster Childs night a little cozier. Not everyone can be a foster parent, but anyone can help a foster child. Thats beautiful. This wasnt the first hard landing on the space coast. There were big layoffs in 1972 after the last mission to the moon. But heres why its worse 40 years later. When we left the moon, nasa was already years into designing the shuttle, and it looked like it would be that way now because president bush approved a program to follow the shuttle. The new manned Space Program rocket was supposed to be called constellation. Mmhmm. And now you guys call it all cancellation. Unfortunately. Lou hanna and joe urich, holly petrucci, and mike carpenter planned to transfer from shuttle to constellation. They were encouraged when candidate barack obama came to Brevard County in 2008, three months before the election. Im gonna ensure that our Space Program doesnt suffer when the shuttle goes out of service by making sure that all those who work in the space industry in florida do not lose their jobs when the shuttle is retired, because we cant afford to lose their expertise. Well, we were lied to when obama came through. Gave us a lot of hope and supposedly a lot of change. Well, ive got change in my pocket, but the hope is gone. In 2010, president obama cancelled constellation and turned over development of a new spaceship to private enterprise. Then congress dealt another blow by cutting the funding for the obama plan in half. Now the workers with that expertise mr. Obama referred to are setting course for carole bess. And ive had several whove told me, i was considering suicide before i came to you. Carole bess is a bankruptcy attorney. What drove them to that point . They felt like failures. You know, here i am. I cant pay my debts. And im probably worth more dead than alive if i have Life Insurance. And folks either arent finding work or, if they do, theyre making a lot less than they were before. Correct. And thats not gonna change. These people have no hope. It could still get a lot worse, i think. Following the Great Recession, we visited a lot of communities that lost their main employer but never one like Brevard County. We learned about the sense of loss with our first question to lucas maxwell, who used to handle the dangerous fuel for the rockets. What was it like when it was launched . Paint that picture for me. Awesome. Iexcuse me. No. The thought was too much for a moment. Then he came back to tell us why. Made your heart stop. Its awesome no matter what, you know, the pride that goes into a vehicle like that. But i knew it was the end too. You know, i knew i was gonna be out on the street. And Space Shuttle, for you, i have the sense was a statement about the country. Oh, yeah, absolutely. This is a matter of national pride. The end of the shuttle is threatening businesses that families have built over decades, like shuttles, the first bar you come to leaving the space center. Not just a bar, really its the place where astronauts land. Before the last launch, we stopped in to the see owner bill grillo. How many employees did you have at the peak . Well, we had 25. And now . Were down to 8. And youre one of them. Yeah. If it comes down to just myself and my son and the cook, well hang on. Shuttles will be here. I wont let it go. But seven months later, shuttles looked like this. Im sorry about this. When we were here before, you were optimistic. You said this place wouldnt close. Yeah. Within 45 days after the last shuttle, we lost 70 of our business. We werent able to sustain. As much as it killed me to do that, i had to. And youve been gone for a couple of months now, but i dont think youve moved a thing in here. I cant right now. Itsits too painful to do that. I got a lot of a lot of my heart is here, and i cant take anything off the walls yet. Its not just a business. No. No. This is an institution. And i dont want to be the one that takes it apart. No one we met expected to be the one to take apart the life theyd known. Some were the second or Third Generation in their family to work at the space center. Before the last launch, we met several at a job center applying for the remaining aerospace work. Sammy rivera worked on the shuttle 26 years, reviewing engineering drawings. Well, i figure, the day i wake up dead, i wont go to work. Thats the bottom line. Theres not gonna be anything for me to retire on. You didnt expect to be unemployed 11 months and counting. At the max, i figured 3 months. Ive applied for engineering jobs. Ive applied for technician jobs. Ive applied for entrylevel jobs. Have you had any interviews . Three. Total of three . Total of three. Three interviews in 11 months . Yes, sir. Do you have Health Insurance . No, sir. No, sir. My Health Insurance terminated on my last day of employment. How are you getting along . A lot of prayer. The medications that i was on outofpocket expense runs me over 800 a month. With no money coming in, i cant afford that. So hes taking only one of the two pills that his doctors say he has to take to avoid a heart attack. You know when youre raising that flag in your front yard . Yes, sir. What are you thinking . This is my country. And i cant let it go down without a fight. The four remaining shuttles are headed to museums. Atlantis will be on display at the Kennedy Space center. She was designed for 100 missions but flew only 33. Like so many in Brevard County, florida, she was pulled from the service of her country long before she was ready. Since our story first aired, job losses from the mothballing of the Shuttle Program continue to hit Brevard County. In september 2012, united space alliance, a major shuttle contractor, reduced its workforce by 6 , including 121 jobs at the Kennedy Space center. Those cuts saw usas floridabased labor force dropped to 1,073 employees, down from about 5,000 at the start of 2010. [ticking] coming up, the stigma of longterm unemployment. Did you ever have the sense that you and others were being discriminated against because of how long youd been unemployed . Theres no doubt. I mean, ive seen it in print. Whether its some newspaper ads or online during those types of advertisements, ive actually seen, if you are unemployed, you need not apply. Trapped in unemployment when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] hey did you know that honey nut cheerios has oats that can help lower cholesterol . And it tastes good . Sure does wow. Its the honey, it makes it taste so. Well, would you look at the time. Whats the rush . Be happy. Be healthy. Lets get a recap, merv. [ merv ] thanks, other merv. Mr. Clean magic eraser extra power was three times faster on permanent marker. Elsewhere against dirt, it was a sweep, with scuffed sports equipment. Had it coming. Grungy phones. Oh super dirty and grimy car rims. Wow that really works . All taking losses. It looks like mr. Clean has won everything. The cleaning games are finished . And so are we. Okay, but i just took a mortgage out on the cabinet. [ male announcer ] clean more, work less, with the mr. Clean magic eraser extra power. [ male announcer ] clean more, work less, officeyour business needs. K. At prices that keep you. Out of the red. This week get a bonus 15 itunes gift card with any qualifying 75 ink purchase. Find thousands of big deals now. At officemax. With multiple lacerations to the wing and a fractured beak. Surgery was successful, but he will be in a cast until it is fully healed, possibly several months. So, if the duck isnt able to work, how will he pay for his Living Expenses . Aflac. Like his rent and car payments . Aflac. What about gas and groceries . Aflac. Cell phone . Aflac, but i doubt hell be using his phone for quite a while cause like i said, he has a fractured beak. [ male announcer ] send the aflac duck a getwell card at getwellduck. Com. [ticking] theres something stubborn about unemployment. Not since the Great Depression has the length of joblessness been as long as its been in the wake of the Great Recession. By late 2011, nearly 4 million people, almost 1 3 of the unemployed, had been out of work for more than a year. To understand what was happening, in february 2012, scott pelley went to stamford, connecticut, to see an experiment that might just offer a way back for americans trapped in unemployment. They started to go through round after round of layoffs, and i got caught in one of the layoffs there. The Great Recession arrived early for frank oneill. It was a cold day in february. It was february 2008. Oneill was a credit consultant for an i. T. Company. What happened . They called me into the Vice President s office, and he basically told me that they were having some financial difficulty and told me that my last day was gonna be that day. I got a small little severance out of it and was off into the world of the unemployed. What have the last three years been like for you . You have those moments, you know, where youre the only one in the house, and youre sitting in front of the computer looking for a job, and you go, when is this ever gonna break for me . How many people signed up for unemployment . Everybody. No one we met in stamford expected to be out of work this long. How many have run to the end of the Unemployment Benefits . Everyone. Those Unemployment Benefits end after 99 weeks. These folks have been out of work two years, three, even four. Theyre collegeeducated professionals in their 40s or 50s, people who thought their company would take them all the way to retirement. Vernon . I was very angry. I was very bitter. I was fed up with society, the corporate world, the lies, deceit, the greed. They dont look it, but they have fallen out of the middle class, turned in cars, gone on food stamps, taken kids out of college, and faced foreclosure. Now, theyve pinned their last hopes on joe carbone. The word carnage is a strong word, but i cant think of a better word in this case. And i what aggravates me is that there isnt outrage. We ought to be angry. We ought to be giving every moment of our time figuring out how were gonna restore for them the american dream. Joe carbone is president of something called the workplace. Its the state Unemployment Office in southwest connecticut where people get job training and placement help. Carbone has a reputation for innovative job programs, but he has never seen so many people out of work so long. There is no comparison to being unemployed for six months and being unemployed for 99 weeks. Your needs change in a drastic way. And what is the change . The change is the mind. That two years of unemployment erodes your selfconfidence, your selfesteem. It separates you from your profession, your education, whatever you might have done previously. Theres all sorts of things. It causes divorces. It causes problems with children. Whats insidious is how hidden these people are. Carbones territory has some of the richest towns in the nation. The commuter lines are arteries to the heart of Corporate Power in new york, but a lot of people Walking Around in suits havent had a job in years. My job is to get people into a career. Carbone has more than 12,000 who have spent their last unemployment check with nowhere to go. I cant tell you how this bothers me. I cant tell you what this has done to me. Its not just the numbers. Itsscott, its the stories that youve heard. Inside, you feel like a part of you has been ripped out from losing a job. This is how joe carbone intends to restore their american dream. He calls it platform to employment. Its a halfmilliondollar program that he raised the money for from businesses and charities. We went along for five weeks as a class of 28 learned how to claw their way back to employment. I was so ashamed to reach out for help because i felt discouraged. I felt ashamed that i had failed. Vernon downes was a project manager for a company that made medical devices. Hes been working to find a job for 2 1 2 years. Ive done everything that i was told to do the education, the certification and i still couldnt get a job. Hes on food stamps, found work with a landscape company, and was glad to get it. So then i said, okay, if i have to do leafblowing to get some sort of an income, im willing to do that, and thats what im doing, and thats how i get by daytoday. [ticking] coming up, the shock of being offered a job. Manager called me. You know, he gave me the brief details. Wed like to have you onboard. Like to start monday. And i really froze on the phone. Platform to employment Success Stories when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. [ticking] [ man ] ive been out there most of my life. You name it. Ive hooked it. But theres one. One thats always eluded me. Thought i had it in the blizzard of 93. Ha never even came close. Sometimes, i actually think its mocking me. [ engine revs ] what . Quattro Quattro ive got two tickets to paradise l set . Pack your bags, well leave tonight. Uhh, its next month, actually. Eddie continues singing to tickets to. Paradiiiiiise no four. Remember . Whoooa whooaa whooo you know ronny, folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to geico sure are happy. And how happy are they jimmy . Happier than eddie money running a travel agency. Get happy. Get geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Fiber one. Uh, forgot jacks cereal. [ jack ] whats for breakfast . Um. Try the number one yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] over a third of a days fiber. Fiber one. 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Music make someone happy its so important to make someone happy. Its so important to make someone happy. Make just one someone happy and you will be happy too. [ticking] did any of you wonder whether you were the only one . Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. It was a very isolating experience for me. Diane graham was an executive assistant. For three years, shes been scraping together parttime work, but shes on food stamps, and she had to move in with her sister. I was possibly looking at homelessness. So i was terrified. Our goal, objective of platform to employment, p2e, is to reconnect you to the workforce. Theyre in class four days a week, and the very first thing they learned was to confront their fears and depression. For me, its been just debilitating fear that i wont be able to take care of myself. The resume. [paper tears] the resume, very soon, will become an obsolete tool in the jobsearch process. They were introduced to how much has changed since the last time they got a job. When theyre considering hiring you for a job, theyre going to go to the internet and see what comes up. If you have nothing that shows up, youre not relevant. Frank oneill. They practiced job interviews. Im noticing a gap, frank. Its looking really good up until about 2008, so could you give me a little explanation about what happened there . And they learned to navigate the new bias, the unspoken reason theyve been turned down again and again. Did you ever have the sense that you and others were being discriminated against because of how long youd been unemployed . Theres no doubt. I mean, ive seen it in print. Whether its some newspaper ads or online during those types of advertisements. Ive actually seen, if you are unemployed, you need not apply. Just look at the web. You see the phrase everywhere must be currently employed. Businesses cant legally discriminate by age, race, or sex, but theres a new Minority Group now the longterm unemployed. Everybody knows were in a terrible state in this country. Why would a stigma attach to being unemployed for a year or two or three . I mean, theres a sense that if a persons out of work for a year or longer, they might be lazy. They might very well be people that would prefer to be home. Or theyve lost too much already to be useful to me. Its unfair, and its wrong. You can use the search bar on facebook. Platform to employment was a little like boot camp. Theres hundreds of social media sites, but linkedin its the number one for anything professional. Managing director. Yes. And over time, we saw something new confidence. What the program has done for meit brought vernon back. I know who i am. I know this is the vernon that i know. That other person for the past post2009 i didnt know who that was. So im back. Im back in the game. I was so prideful and so stubborn that i would not apply for parttime positions. I wasnt gonna go work at the Grocery Store nearby. I wasnt gonna go flip burgers. I have a college education. Ive been successful at work. Ive been working for 30 years. Im not doing this. So when this opportunity for platform to employment came along, i joined it, and it changed my mindset. After the classes are over, platform to employment opens the door on its biggest innovation. Its an internship with a business thats looking to hire. Tell me what that first day was like, walking through the door. It was nice to be a part of the workforce, having to go to work in the morning rather than get up in the morning and go look for work. Here, the Office Intern isnt a college student; hes 50something, educated and experienced. For eight weeks, frank oneill would work at cain management, which owns fastfood restaurants. Platform to employment pays oneills salary. What do you have to prove, and how do you think thats gonna work out . They told me right off the bat. We have a job. And its got to get done. And you need to prove yourself that youre the person who can get this job done for us. Fair enough. Absolutely. All were looking for is an opportunity. 100 people are enrolled in platform to employment, and after five months, 53 have jobs. Vernon downes found work in his field, information technology, at a Company Called career resources. Diane graham got a call. After three years of hearing no, she didnt know how to respond to yes. Manager called me. You know, he gave me the brief details. Wed like to have you onboard. Like to start monday. And i really froze on the phone. And i think he sensed it, because he said to me, you know, take few minutes to think about it and call me back. And when i hung up the phone, im like, are you crazy . What do i have to think about . I was just really, really in shock. I was not expecting it all. Its good to see you. Shes working at lex products, which makes Power Systems for industry. Being in the hustlebustle of everybody going to work i missed that. I truly missed it. Its not just about a paycheck. No. No. No. Where in the past, it might have been, but this has become about my dignity. And at the end of his internship, frank oneill heard from the boss. You just got a new job. Yes, i did. Brings a smile to my face. I see that. Where do you see yourself three months from now . Employed . Yeah. Yes. Yes . Oh, everybody. On graduation day, there was quite a change in the people that we first met that first day in class. Vernon downes. [applause] joe carbone hopes his experience might become a model for the other 4 million and counting whose lives have been broken by the Great Recession. I wonder if you have a message