By Lora Oehlberg
Town Crier Editorial Intern
Since the St. Joseph the Worker Center shut its doors Oct. 31, day workers have been lining along El Camino Real looking for employment.
Local ordinances prohibit workers from soliciting work from the street. Mountain View and Los Altos police said they will issue citations to day workers only if they create a safety hazard. However, Los Altos officers have been handing out fliers to the day workers directing them to San Jose, where employment services are offered.
The St. Joseph the Worker Center, formerly located at 4898 El Camino Real in Los Altos, trained, counseled and matched day workers with employers for five years until it could no longer extend its lease at that location. The center currently is trying to find a new location and funding to pay for higher rents.
“It’s a chicken-and-egg situation. We’re trying to raise funds to relocate the center, but in order to raise money we need a site,” said Steve Pehanich, program director of the center.
John Rinaldi, an attorney and president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Santa Clara County, said he was particularly offended at fliers Mountain View and Los Altos officials sent to day workers after the center closed. The fliers urged workers to travel to the Alum Rock Day Workers Center in San Jose, stating that loitering on Los Altos streets was against the law.
“San Jose’s not going to be happy about that,” Rinaldi said, noting that both Los Altos and Mountain View are pushing the problem on San Jose. San Jose funds the Alum Rock center, Rinaldi said, which is in danger of being “overtaxed” with additional workers from Mountain View.
Los Altos Mayor Francis La Poll doesn’t see it that way. “What is wrong with telling folks where there is a center?” he said. “We did not exclude San Jose residents from our center. Is it OK for the San Jose center to exclude ours? I think not.”
The number of day workers rose dramatically at the St. Joseph the Worker Center after Los Altos and Mountain View passed ordinances banning employers from soliciting day workers on the streets. The overflow of workers prompted the center’s landlord to decline renewal of the lease in June, forcing closure.
Years of complaints prompted Los Altos to pass a no-solicitation ordinance in 1999 that prohibits the solicitation for work in the public right of way in designated zones. Mountain View passed a similar ordinance last year.
After the Mountain View and Los Altos ordinances were passed, the number of workers at the center jumped from 70 to 250. Of these workers, 65 percent lived in Mountain View. Of the employers coming to the center, 25 percent were from Los Altos.
“The cities of Mountain View and Los Altos have to get together to find places (alternate sites for a local day worker center) and seek solutions,” Rinaldi said.
La Poll said the city has been supportive of the day worker center.
“The people of Los Altos - they hire these workers - there has to be some balance,” Rinaldi said.
