Houston cuts off city funding to day labor site

Associated Press - June 21, 2007 12:15 PM ET

HOUSTON (AP) - A city-funded day labor center in Houston will close at the end of this month after officials decided not to renew its $100,000 contract.

Critics have said the East End Worker Development Center encouraged illegal immigration.

It was Houston's only city-funded day labor site -- funded through the federal Community Development Block Grant program. It's been popular with illegal workers, who gather there to seek employment.

Last spring, then-councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs criticized the city funding. Sekula-Gibbs was running for the GOP nomination to succeed Congressman Tom Delay. She said taxpayer money shouldn't be used for something that promotes illegal immigration.

Neighborhood Centers Incorporated has operated the center since 2005. The director of the Houston nonprofit human services agency says he'd keep operating the center if funding is found.

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