The trailer that houses Herndon’s day-laborer center, scheduled to open this morning, isn’t fancy. But it is clean; it is heated; and it has a restroom.
For the laborers who plan to use the center, it’s a welcome step up from hanging out on a street corner, in nearby parking lots or outside a 7-Eleven.
“It’s just amenities we try to provide on site so they don’t have to go a distance to get the things that they need,” said Bill Threlkeld, director of Project Hope and Harmony, a nonprofit group that will operate the center. “Any degree of initial comfort we can give them is very much appreciated by them.”
Still, workers will have to wait for work outside the trailer, in a designated area of the center’s parking lot.
Organizers will use a lottery system to distribute jobs among the laborers so they don’t swarm vehicles entering the parking lot, Mr. Threlkeld said.
“So you only have three or five guys at a time who know they are in line to go to a work site, [and] the rest of the guys … know if they venture off for too long, they might miss out on the opportunity,” he said.
In the parking lot, there will be four portable toilets, heaters and a mobile food vendor to prevent the laborers — mostly men — from walking around town, Mr. Threlkeld said.
The trailer that houses the center sits behind the town’s former police station, near the intersection of Rock Hill and Sterling roads in Herndon.
Tensions arose in the summer when the Herndon Town Council approved a taxpayer-funded center for day laborers, who are mostly illegal aliens.
Town residents and merchants complained that the laborers, who congregated outside convenience stores or on street corners, drank, urinated in public and harassed women who walked by.
The laborers have formed a leadership group, a code of conduct and disciplinary rules to self-regulate such behavior, said Joel Mills, an executive council member of Project Hope and Harmony.
“It’s a much more well-structured environment than what they’re used to, and we’re working with everybody to make sure they understand the rules,” he said.
The center is funded through a $175,000 contract with Fairfax County, a $43,000 Consolidated Community Funding Pool award from the county, a $35,000 grant from the Washington Area Partnership for Immigrants and private donations, Mr. Threlkeld said.
“We’ve budgeted about $280,000 a year,” he said. “That includes personnel, leases, you’ve got insurance, and that doesn’t even include a whole slew of in-kind services that we provide as part of our program.”
The center also will offer English classes.
Organizers also plan to build a 40-by-25-foot curtained shelter in the parking lot this winter to curb the wind and rain and keep in warmth, Mr. Threlkeld said. It also will have awnings if the center exceeds its 150-person capacity, he added.
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