Why should small businesses participate in Section 3?

Programs like Section 3 can be beneficial for not just your individual business but for the local economy as well. The Section 3 program requires that businesses who win certain HUD contracts hire and train low income residents in connection with projects in their own neighborhoods, to the extent possible. A small business owner who participates in the Section 3 program will not only grow their own business, they will also provide opportunities to members of their own community.

"[Section 3 is] great for the individual, great for the taxpayer. You’re getting that full lifecycle of the money. It just doesn’t go to the contractor, it gets used as payroll
and helps develop people."

Rashawn Figures
Mobile small business owner since 1989
Section 3 program participant

The Section 3 program has allowed small business owners like Rashawn Figures, a general contractor, to expand his business through building and renovation programs for the city of Mobile. And the opportunity to hire members of his community is an added benefit, he says. Figures hired a Section 3-qualified employee for a housing project that eventually became a long-term business relationship. “He showed up every day, he got a great wage, and he’s worked with us since,” Figures says. And the extra opportunities of Section 3 extend to the business owners themselves. “Section 3 offered disadvantaged businesses a place at the table, and showed us how to do business with the public sector,” says Marshall, a construction contractor in Mobile. Building your business and strengthening your relationship to your community are both great reasons to get Section 3 certified, and the centralized WorkWith platform makes that process easier than ever before.