Thread: Good News: Day-labor site loses funding in AZ

Of course they can't keep these sites open when the taxpayers aren't footing the bill. Shocker!

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... enter.html

Day-labor site loses funding

Yvonne Wingett
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 8, 2006 12:00 AM

The Macehualli Work Center is on the verge of closing after most of its financial backers have pulled out.

The hiring center was set up three years ago by Phoenix to reduce problems caused by workers who gathered on sidewalks. From the day it opened, it has been the focus of bitter battles over how the city should deal with the large number of undocumented workers.

The center's financial backers are four non-profit organizations, and Luz Sarmina-Gutierrez, president and chief executive of Valle del Sol, said the organizations have been discussing for weeks whether to continue their support.

On Wednesday, officials with the non-profit groups confirmed that three of the four have decided to end their funding.

As the city's only day-labor center, Macehualli provides a meeting place for dozens of workers and people who want to employ them.

"My prediction is that it's going to die," Sarmina-Gutierrez said. "It's a decision by default. We're out of money."

The three groups that have withdrawn funding for the center are Chicanos Por La Causa, Valle del Sol Inc., and Friendly House. The fourth group, Tonatierra, will continue its financial backing. The ongoing debate over the existence of the center has played a role in the decision because the hostile political climate for projects that help undocumented immigrants makes fund-raising difficult.

Political backlash

The center opened in February 2003 to provide a safe place for laborers in the Palomino neighborhood. Businesses and residents had complained of workers loitering in parking lots to flag down employers and disrupting traffic by running intp the streets to jump into work trucks.

The City Council agreed to set up the work center and spent $120,000 in public money to do so. That fueled a political backlash by illegal-immigration opponents who launched a failed recall election against the district's councilwoman and led to Proposition 200, passed by voters two years ago. The law bars undocumented immigrants from receiving some public benefits and requires voters to show proof of citizenship.

Last year, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed off on House Bill 2592, a Republican-backed bill that bans local governments from spending taxpayer money on day-labor centers.

Politics aside, the center attracted workers in that area, city officials said, and has improved traffic concerns and working conditions. Still, dozens of day laborers refuse to use the center and continue to stand along Bell Road. Many other workers, meanwhile, still line streets in other areas of the city, clustering near home-improvement stores.

A matter of money

Since fiscal 2004, the four non-profits have spent about $71,250 on the Macehualli Center, said Teri Leon, chief operating officer of Friendly House. The money paid for land rent, electricity bills and portable-toilet fees.

The project has always been financially strapped; in 2004, philanthropist Jerry Bisgrove donated $55,000 for the project.

"The coalition has not been successful in raising money to support the center," Leon said. "We can no longer provide our financial support. We just can't afford it."

The $45,000-a-year lease on the property at 16801 N. 25th St. is up on Aug. 1, officials said. Salvador Reza, leader of Tonatierra, said he is "exploring" some money-raising options. It is going to be difficult, he said, because many private organizations and businesses are afraid to touch anything that "smells like it's helping illegal aliens."

He may ask the workers to pitch in money to keep the center opened, he said, or approach a taco vendors association to help.

Bottom line

"The bottom line is that because of the climate (some people) don't want to support it, fearing being labeled pro-immigrant," said Reza, a longtime activist who said he will fight to keep the center open. "If we can just find a way to buy the land, then it would be just the tax that we'd have to pay."

Phoenix will run against a national trend if the Macehualli Center closes, according to experts and a recent national study. From Los Angeles to New York, cities with sizable immigrant populations are opening day-labor centers to deal with the country's estimated 120,000 such laborers. Some are privately funded, others publicly funded.

In the Valley and across the country, strong emotions have erupted over day-labor centers. Illegal-immigration opponents say the centers encourage illegal immigration. Supporters argue they help resolve traffic, trespassing and neighborhood problems.

"The worker-center idea really has been sweeping the country," said Nik Theodore, director of the Center for Urban and Economic Development at the University of Illinois-Chicago and co-author of On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States. "A lot of what's happening around the country has been modeled around Phoenix's center. (If it closes), violations that are rampant with day-labor work begin to rise. . . . They again experience very harsh conditions."

Macehualli workers will be back on the very streets the center was created to take them off if the center closes, said officials of non-profit groups and the city. Representatives from the four non-profits will meet today with city officials to discuss the situation. Phoenix Deputy City Manager David Cavazos said they will coordinate a response if the center shuts down.

Early Wednesday morning, Felipe Garcia Ramirez and 50 other people waited for temporary jobs as landscapers, construction workers, house cleaners and movers. Spanish-language music played from a radio.

"We don't have to stand on the street, the police respect us and don't bother us," said the 42-year-old from Mexico City. "If somebody doesn't pay, we get their license-plate number, so they pay us.

"We have regulations. We get along well. We don't want the center to close."

They could probably raise the money if they charged each laborer a fee to use the facility and a fee for the contractors.
But since they are all about hand-outs, they will never think of that as an option.
They think it should be free and handed to them (by us of course)

"He may ask the workers to pitch in money to keep the center opened, he said, or approach a taco vendors association to help."

sort of a Taco user tax?

Didn't see that line.
They won't go for it anyway. They want free. Heaven forbid they have to pay for such a service when it's the govts responsibilty to provide it.

So our government uses our money to give our jobs away. Democracy or Dumbocracy?

Problems. Problems. Problems.
It's gonna be a lot of work getting these illegals home, but it's gonna solve a lot of neighborhood problems.

Maybe if they start bothering neighborhoods again, more people will open their eyes to the problems and get onboard to help protest to get them out of the country. You know when you don't have to see it then it is a little easier to turn a blind eye to the problem. Hey maybe when people call the police to complain more of them will be picked up and put in jail. Phoenix is in Maricopa County where they have sheriff Joe Arpaio who put up tents and has no problem putting illegals in the tents.