Thread: Houston Mayor looks for funding for day labor site

Mayor looks for funding for day labor center
East End facility needs $100,000 to stay open after city contract ends


By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle


Houston Mayor Bill White will help locate $100,000 to keep an East End day labor center from closing its doors when a city contract ends this month, his staff confirmed late Thursday.

The controversial East End Worker Development Center, at 2 North Sampson and popular with illegal workers, is the only city-funded hiring hall in operation in Houston.

City officials decided recently not to renew a $100,000-a-year contract with the nonprofit Neighborhood Centers Inc. to operate the center. The funding issue also surfaced in spring 2006 when a City Council member and others charged that the center encouraged illegal immigration.

The center is operated with federal Community Development Block Grant funds.

Frank Michel, a spokesman for White who is on business in Washington, D.C, confirmed the mayor has agreed to work with center operators to find new funding.

"What he said is he would work with them to identify other sources of funding," Michel said. "What that is, I can't say at this point because it hasn't yet been identified."

Michel said officials at Neighborhood Centers have been notified of the mayor's effort.

Marc Levinson, director of communications at the nonprofit agency, said he spoke with White's chief of staff, Michael Moore, late Thursday.

"The mayor has committed to finding the private funding necessary to keep the center open for another year," Levinson said.

Levinson said if funding becomes available, he would love to keep the program going. "We believe it is a valuable program," he said.

Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, whose district includes the near-downtown hiring hall, also confirmed that the city administration notified her Thursday of the effort to keep the center operating.

"I received a call from the mayor's chief of staff that they would seek funding to keep the center open, but they did not identify where the funding would come from," Alvarado said. "I'm just pleased they are committed to keeping the center open."

The near-downtown day-labor center eliminates the safety hazards of workers who solicit jobs on city streets, Alvarado said. "It's safe, it's secure, it's a controlled environment, as opposed to street corners and retail parking lots," she said.

The funding development was applauded by Hispanic groups and immigration advocates but decried by those who say day labor centers promote illegal immigration.

"I consider providing funds for the day-labor center is against the U.S. code on immigration by supporting and encouraging illegal immigrants to be here," said Louise Whiteford, president of Texans for Immigration Reform, based in Houston. "We're just going to develop an underclass of workers that will be cheaper and cheaper, and that's what the corporations want."

Jose Luis Jimenez, district director for LULAC in Houston, said the center provides a vital service to local workers.

"That's a very heartfelt commitment by a mayor who understands this is not only about people who are undocumented," Jimenez said. "There are people who are legal residents who go there to find work because they can't find it anywhere else."

james.pinkerton@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 11052.html

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I knew he would do this. Unfortunately, I live outside the city limits and can't vote in city elections. Supposedly, Bill White is looking to run for governor and then I can vote against him!

"There are people who are legal residents who go there to find work because they can't find it anywhere else."

I'm sure you can bet that there is MAYBE one legal worker to every hundred criminal aliens! Most legal workers I know read want ads or use employment agencies. People who looked for work on street corners, well we used to call them......Well never mind!

What do you expact from a "sanctuary city"?

I love that part:

The near-downtown day-labor center eliminates the safety hazards of workers who solicit jobs on city streets

What's the next step? To build a bona fide brothel, with federal money, to remove the safety hazard for prostitutes, who otherwise have to solicit on city streets? As a matter of fact, this would make more sense in case the prostitutes were US citizens.