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Langley Park Shopping Center may provide site for day laborers
Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006

by Agnes Jasinski

Staff Writer


After several years of scouting sites for a day laborer center closer to the Takoma⁄Langley Crossroads, city and county officials hope they have finally found a spot to address the more than 200 day laborers who congregate there daily.

The center is tentatively planned for 6,000 square feet of basement space at the Langley Park Shopping Center, said Penelope Guzman, Latino affairs liaison for the office of Jack B. Johnson (D), Prince George’s County Executive.

Many business owners in the area say they support the idea, as they would rather see the men inside instead of standing outside their stores. The plans for the site, or the Prince George’s Workers Center, include a waiting area, legal services, computers and vocational classes, Guzman said. It would be staffed by Casa of Maryland employees.

Casa already runs two sites in the area, including a permanent site that will stay open on University Boulevard East in Silver Spring and a temporary site on New Hampshire Avenue in Takoma Park, which is jointly funded by Takoma Park and Montgomery County.

But the other sites are not as close to the Crossroads, which is the center of immigrant activity. Many workers still congregate near the stores at the intersection instead of traveling several blocks away to the laborer sites.

‘‘You can’t force anyone to do anything ... but if the employers come here, the workers will come here,” said Guzman, who has been working with Casa to find a permanent day laborer site for nearly five years.

Prince George’s County has already allocated $150,000 in funding for the center. Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa, estimates the costs of renovation at $350,000.

The site will be located underneath a strip of several businesses, including Señor Chicken and the Sports Outlet. Sherif Ashkar, whose father owns the Sports Outlet at 7976 New Hampshire Ave., supports the plan. The workers already congregate outside, he said, so why not give them a space to themselves?

And besides, he said, a center could bring even more workers, which could mean more money for him and his father. ‘‘Where there’s more people, there’s more money,” Ashkar said.

But getting the site ready may take a while. The owners of the property, California-based Reliable Properties, are expected to bring the basement up to code with fire exits and a sprinkler system. The local property manager referred requests for comment to the ownership, but neither the owners nor representatives of the property could be reached for comment.

Casa will do the rest, from furnishing the space to promoting the site to employers.

‘‘As soon as we get more money, we’ll start the construction,” said Torres, who would like to see funding from a ‘‘diverse group” of sources, including private foundations and the state.

The space has a long way to go. Water damage is visible on the walls and a musty odor hangs in the air. Much of the floor is covered in dirt, and rusted pipes have been laid on the floor. The rear entrance of the property opens to a service road where employers could potentially drive to pick up the workers, but a large trash receptacle blocking one lane must be moved.

Joseph Enyinnaya, who runs Computer Solution Providers, a computer repair and shipping business in a space of the basement separated from the planned day laborer site, said he was surprised the property owner agreed to take on such a significant project.

But he is glad the rest of the basement will be put to good use — whenever that may be — and has already offered to teach the men computer skills.

‘‘I know what it means to be a newcomer to the area,” said Enyinnaya, who is from Nigeria. ‘‘Every morning I see the brothers and sisters looking for something to do. ... It will be good to see them organized.”

For now, most of the workers will continue to wait outside the businesses in the morning. Erwin Mack, executive director of the Takoma⁄Langley Crossroads Development Authority, said the number of day laborers outside keeps other shoppers from coming into the stores. Although he and the business owners he has spoken to have been in favor of offering a site for the workers near the Crossroads, Mack said a more logical location would be farther from the heavy traffic associated with the shopping center.

Mack also worries about spillover and the day laborers who choose not to use the new facility if they aren’t picked up by employers. He would have liked to see more progress at the site Prince George’s County officials were looking to acquire over the past year at University Boulevard and Riggs Road. But Guzman said the landlord there was taking too long to make up his mind.

‘‘He still hasn’t even told us no,” Guzman said of plans for the former site. ‘‘It just got to the point that we realized he wasn’t moving on this ... so we started looking again.”

Temporary site remains open

A ‘‘temporary” site at Sheridan Street and New Hampshire Avenue, south of East West Highway in Takoma Park, was set up nearly four years ago to be operated by Casa, but the day laborers who have become regulars there say they run it themselves.

Although they have yet to use the television, stereo and refrigerator they were provided with because they have no electricity, most would still rather stay at the trailer than move to the Crossroads.

For one thing, there’s more competition in Langley Park. Guzman said more than 200 men can be found at the Crossroads on any given morning. And many of the men at the Takoma Park site are from Takoma Park and the surrounding area.

At the trailer, Edgar Perez of Takoma Park said through a translator the men there manage just fine. When people litter outside, they tell them to clean it up. They have developed an informal system of assigning work. Employers who come to the trailer know who their regulars are, and even though Guzman said the site is more ‘‘every man for himself” than the new center could potentially be, Perez said the men trust each other enough to back off when an employer is looking for a certain worker.

Martin Hernandez, a native of Honduras who lives in Chillum, said through a translator that while the men have been running the show pretty well, it would help to have more organization. And it would help to have someone at the temporary site representing laborers more often when conflicts arise with employers, for example.

Casa’s Torres said it’s difficult to meet all the needs at the Takoma Park site because there’s only one organizer on hand. Casa doesn’t have the capacity to pay more people, he said, and the organizer has other responsibilities outside of the trailer.

Most of the workers would rather stay at the Takoma Park trailer rather than be uprooted again, but once the new center opens, the trailer will be shut down. Suzanne Ludlow, community and government liaison for Takoma Park, said the city has budgeted $40,000 for the temporary site — which is matched by the county — but total actual expenses are around $65,000.

Guzman said she doesn’t have a timeline of when the trailer will be shut down or when the new center would be ready. She would rather not get her hopes up since plans for the last day laborer site fell through. Takoma Park Councilman Doug Barry (Ward 6), whose ward includes the Crossroads, also is taking a wait-and-see approach.

‘‘It’s a ‘build it and we’ll see if they come’ situation,” Barry said. ‘‘I’m encouraged that [the day laborers] will use the services the center will provide. It’s a dimension that’s been lacking before.”