Thread: CA-Job center for day laborers closes

Job center for day laborers closes

By JAIMEE LYNN FLETCHER
The Orange County Register
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Thousands of workers could go back to job searching on street corners.

HUNTINGTON BEACH – A slow in development projects coupled with financial constraints has forced the city to close a job center that hooked thousands of day laborers up with contracting jobs each year.

The Luis M. Ochoa Job Center in the 18000 block of Gothard Street closed June 30 and city officials have opted not to fund the center for 2009-10, said Economic Development project manager Simone Slifman.

"We didn't want to close it…it was an important program to us," Slifman said. "We just needed to find a way to make every attempt we could to find savings in the general fund, and placements had declined because of slowing in the building industry."

The city budgeted about $55,000 for the center each year, which was operated by the Garden Grove-based nonprofit, St. Anslem's Cross Cultural Community Center, under a contract with the city.

The program was axed as part of the city's 2008-09 mid-year budget cuts after the Economic Development Department saw steady declines in contractors looking for work and the number of workers being placed with a job.

The placement rate from January to June dropped 34 percent from the same period in 2008 and 49 percent from 2007.

"I don't think we see as many declines due to weather, it's primarily the building industry is reduced so there is less of a need for individuals to be placed with jobs," Slifman said.

The center saw about 4,950 placements in 2007, in 2008 that number dropped to about 3,800. From January to June in 2009 there were about 1,340 placements.

Slifman said the number of people looking for work also started to drop.

There was a 14 percent decrease from 2008 in day laborers looking for work from January to June.

The job center in 2007 saw about 8,500 people looking for work and in 2008 that number dropped to about 7,300. From January to June in 2009 there were about 3,600 job seekers.

These numbers reflect the people that came each day, which includes return workers, Slifman said.

The center opened in September 1999 and was originally operated by the Coastline Community College District. The city contracted with St. Anslem's in 2008 to run the center when Coastline opted not to re-sign.

The site was primarily a staging area for contractors looking to hire day laborers for large jobs, however residents occasionally took advantage of the service as well.

"People who primarily used the center were contractors, but it was available to anybody," Slifman said. "Some homeowners would come in looking for help with gardening or moving."

The center looked to deter day laborers from looking for work near hardware stores, such as Home Depot, or on street corners.

The center was one of three in Orange County that didn't ask for right-to-work papers from day laborers, according to a Register article. Workers simply had to provide some sort of identification card and an address.

"That's why I come here," William Duarte, 32, who is an illegal worker, told a Register reporter when the Huntington Beach site was open.

Orange and Laguna Beach are now the only two city facilities available for day laborers. County-run centers require workers to provide documentation to show they can work legally in the country.

Orange's city-run job center is now open only on Saturdays because of staffing issues, city officials said. Laguna Beach's job center is run by an outside company but the city contributes funding to the program and owns the land the job center sits on, city officials said.

Slifman said it is possible the city could reinstate the program once the economy turns around and the construction business is thriving again, however it is up to the City Council whether they would like to revisit opening the center again.

"Right now it's closed, but that doesn't mean it's closed forever," she said.

Reporter Cindy Carcamo contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 949-553-2932 or jfletcher@ocregister.com

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cent ... 3-work-day

How about closing this?

National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Close all buisinesses that aid and abet the illegals.