BREA : Job Center Voted for Day Laborers

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a temporary downtown job center for dayworkers. Also approved was $14,000 to carry the center through the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Brea’s job center will be “open to all people seeking labor” and “will not be checking the residential and legal status” of the workers, said Ret Wixted, city parks and recreation director. “That’s really the employer’s responsibility,” she said.

Informational bulletins about the liabilities of hiring undocumented dayworkers will be available at the center.

Employers from construction, landscaping, gardening, hotel and food industries will hire dayworkers from the center, Wixted said.

Brea’s Job Center grew out of an effort to improve the South Walnut area of downtown, Wixted said. Neighbors complain that dayworkers cause traffic and litter problems.

A community panel studied the problem and recommended opening a job center. The facility will be administered by the Gary Center, a Brea-based nonprofit agency.

Costa Mesa and Orange have also set up centers for dayworkers.