Thread: WA: Concern follows Casa Latina's day-laborer program

Concern follows Casa Latina's day-laborer program
Some neighbors unhappy with plans to move to Central District

Monday, April 23, 2007

By AMY ROLPH
P-I REPORTER

Western Avenue in Belltown is crowded with day laborers every morning -- exactly the scene Seattle's Central District residents and business owners don't want played out on their own streets and sidewalks.

But the Belltown-based day-laborer program Casa Latina has already paid $250,000 for office space in the Central District. The Legislature also is giving the program $1 million, so it seems Casa Latina is moving to the Central District whether the neighborhood wants it or not.

Many in the neighborhood clearly don't. They worry that their neighborhood sidewalks will be transformed into an outdoor waiting room for Casa Latina's migrant workers, loitering tag-alongs and homeless drifters. Despite Casa Latina's efforts to convince them otherwise, they think crime rates will skyrocket at a time when the Central District is just starting to emerge from its reputation as being crime ridden.

"There's no evidence to suggest that a day-labor site moving in would trigger this," Casa Latina's Executive Director Hilary Stern said.

Not everyone is won over.

"Why on earth would the city put a day-labor site in a residential area of the community?" asked Maria Beppu, a Central District business owner. "We do not want their day laborers."

It looks like the only hope for peace will be a city-appointed mediator, who will wade through the concerns, decide on ground rules, then oversee the drafting of a legally binding "good neighbor agreement." The mediator should be appointed some time this week, said Al Poole, a division director with the city's Human Services Department.

But some think it's too little, too late for the city, which gave Casa Latina a $250,000 subsidy to finance the move to South Jackson Street and 17th Avenue South after it became apparent that viaduct construction would displace the organization. Casa Latina will move its programs for women and children into the new site next year but hold off until 2009 to move the day laborers until an additional building is completed.


Two years ago, Casa Latina considered an equally controversial move to a former Chubby and Tubby garden center in Rainier Valley, but eventually determined renovations would be too costly.

At its new site, Casa Latina plans on keeping workers inside, dispatching them by phone or Internet order, something Stern said would discourage outside loiterers unaffiliated with the organization.

"It's in our own self-interest not to have something start up outside," she said. "What we are adding would be visible monitoring to make sure it doesn't happen."

Opponents want Casa Latina to run background checks on all workers and refuse to dispatch them if they can't prove they've legally immigrated to the U.S. or if they have criminal records.

At the Millionair Club, a Belltown-based organization that also dispatches day laborers, background checks have been standard for about five years.

"Since we see so many of them, we're pretty good at initially just telling if they're legal documents," Millionair Club spokeswoman Deborah Crawley said.

But background checks might prove to be the biggest stalemate of the good neighbor agreement. Stern said that responsibility legally falls on the employer and that singling out immigrants for unnecessary background checks violates their civil rights.

"There is a very persistent myth that immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants, are dangerous," she said. "Not only is that untrue, but the opposite is true."

But change is coming to the Central District, and some say an unruly day-laborer program would delay progress. Just one block east on South Jackson Street, developers plan to build a big-box retail center. All around the area, newly completed homes and condos are for sale.

Some Belltown business owners were relieved to hear that Casa Latina is moving to the other side of the city.

"We see it as a good thing for Belltown," Belltown Business Association President Chuck Stempler said. "There is an indirect consequence for Belltown in having them here."

The trendy downtown neighborhood has been a hot spot for finding cheap day laborers for about 60 years. Though Casa Latina moved into the neighborhood recently, Stempler thinks its departure will decrease loitering, littering and public urination on sidewalks near their Western Avenue headquarters.

"We think it will be significantly diminished," he said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/312 ... ina23.html

"There is a very persistent myth that immigrants, particularly undocumented immigrants, are dangerous," she said. "Not only is that untrue, but the opposite is true."

What? Documented immigrants ARE dangerous? What an ignoramous, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH..

This story is nothing short of 'shoving it down your throats', folks.