Lack of funding causes the center’s demise
On Friday, just days before Monday’s national boycott by immigrants, the South County Dayworker Center closed its doors for lack of funding.
Julian Mancias, one of the South County Dayworker Center Committee leaders, said funding plus other complications caused the center’s demise.
The center, which opened in June 2005, provided support to the dayworkers who wait for homeowners, contractors and landscapers needing cheap work or other unskilled labor.
South County Dayworker Center Executive Director Eloisa Games acted as a liaison between the dayworkers and their employers, particularly if they did not speak Spanish.
Hispanic leaders in the county said the laborers, also called “jornaleros” are saddened by the center’s closing and would like the facility to open, particularly as their need for unskilled labor increases in the summer.
The center’s biggest benefit was that it provided the workers with options, Mancias said. When they wanted protection from the weather, they could go inside. Coffee, bagels and food were also available. Most of the time, he said the men wandered in and out. Some people may have thought the workers did not use the center, because they still stood outside in the morning, waiting for someone to hire them.
“The center’s availability raises the level of dignity a lot higher than having no options, except standing on the street,” Mancias said.
The center did a lot more than just provide a place for the men to get a cup of coffee, Mancias added. Workshops were offered on various topics, health care and dental clinics were held, and Alejandra Gomez taught English.
The center opened after years of planning by the committee. The first committee meeting was in February 2000. The group met religiously every month afterwards. The closing comes as the owner of the land where the two portables are located at the corner of Depot Street and E. Main Avenue plans to develop the property. Mancias said the committee always new Charles Weston, the owner, would eventually develop the land.
That circumstance, combined with the fact that their non-profit status with the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose was expiring, exacerbated the center’s situation. Committee members were originally planning to be off the property by the middle of July, but because their status expired in June, they moved the date back.
“It just all funneled down into a pretty obvious decision to close on April 28,” he said.
The struggle to open the center and the fight to keep it open, Mancias said, made the decision to close it seem a relief, at least at first.
“The struggle to survive is over,” he said.
But, he added, the center is in transition now, as the committee hopes to relocate it somewhere else. Right now, he is focused on returning the property to the condition it was when the committee leased it from Weston. Other committee members are looking for a new site, he said.
Committee member Mario Banuelos said Monday that the closing of the center does not mean the committee will give up its work.
“The need will still be there, and although we currently don’t have a center, we will still be there to help them in any way we can,” he said. “This is very unfortunate. I don’t think some people understand how great the need is. But we knew our time was limited, and we will work through this challenge.”
Mancias and Banuelos said they were pleased with the programs the committee had put together for the center and would resume their efforts.
“From our perspective, the city of Morgan Hill should be proud of what they have done and hopefully will continue to do to support these men,” Mancias said. “Because to marginalize a sector of our community because they may be a little different than the rest of us is wrong. The city of Morgan Hill agreed with us and extended a helping hand. There are many communities that would not have done that.”
Mancias said the community reached out to help the center, through participating in fundraising events, one in the fall and one in the spring, as they prepared to open the center. He also said city government was supportive of the efforts to open the center.
Games didn’t return calls for comment.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@*************es.com.
