Day laborers back to square one, by Sebastian Montes
Scrambling for answers in the wake of that collapse, a coalition of religious leaders now says placing some sort of temporary shelter on a field across from St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church on Route 355 may be the best option.
But preliminary talks with city leaders this week did not go well, the group reports.
This site has been discussed here a few times.
‘‘We are back to square zero,” said day-laborer advocate Grace Rivera, who hosts a Spanish-language talk show on county cable. ‘‘It’s going to be three years, winter’s upon us, so it’s very frustrating.”
When asked whether it is time to look outside city limits and about the status of the anti-solicitation law, Katz also deferred, saying he needed to ‘‘wait to hear” what City Manager David Humpton has to report Monday.
‘‘To say, ‘It’s the county’s problem,’ and ‘We’re going to push these people out of the city,’ is an inadequate response,” said County Council President George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) of Takoma Park on Monday.
However, he added he was ‘‘not prepared” to say whether the county will try to find a site for a day-laborer center outside Gaithersburg. He hopes that the city and county can continue its ongoing partnership in finding a solution.
And saying “it’s the City’s problem,” and “We’re going to force the City to find a place to host these people whether a willing landlord can be found or not,” is all just fine I suppose.
St. Martin’s has not officially submitted the plan, but many parents of students at St. Martin’s School across the street are opposed to day laborers being near their children.
Katz understands the concern.
‘‘I have real difficulty with that suggestion,” Katz said. ‘‘That location is not the best location for this use.”
Looking more long term, the King of Nations Church, which was new to the coalition Monday, offered its space on Route 28 near Key West Avenue for a permanent center.
This is the first print reference I’ve seen regarding the involvement of the King of Nations Christian Fellowship. My understanding is that they had previously offered to host the day laborers at their site, but had been rebuffed. It is good to see them participating in the coalition.
Proposed law would restrict the hiring of day laborers, by Sebastian Montes
The proposed law, an anti-solicitation ordinance intended to prevent day laborers and their employers from meeting anywhere in the city other than at an approved center, was supposed to coincide with opening a center.
County Council President George L. Leventhal, (D-At Large) of Takoma Park, said he is well aware of the problems associated with the scores of workers who flock to the Takoma⁄Langley Park crossroads area every morning despite county-funded centers a few miles away in Wheaton and Silver Spring.
But he stands resolute that day-laborer centers are ‘‘good policy.”
They ‘‘bring order and rationality to a situation that is disruptive to businesses and neighborhoods,” he said.
Still, ordinances like what Gaithersburg is considering are part of the necessary dialogue in how to regulate day laborers, but is not sure that an outright ban is the best way to go about it.
‘‘That’s an ongoing conversation,” he said, ‘‘and I’m not prepared to say whether an ordinance like that is a good idea or a bad idea. … My preference is to use a carrot rather than a stick.”
He did not elaborate on what the ‘‘carrot” might be, saying that what needs to happen first is that a new county executive be sworn in, so the county can then craft a ‘‘unified position.”
The laborers get the carrots. Neighborhoods get the stick.
