Hiring Center Is Luring Workers but Only a Handful of Employers

Men seeking work continue to crowd the city’s first hiring center for day laborers in the San Fernando Valley, but employers apparently have yet to discover the dusty North Hollywood lot on Sherman Way between Radford and Hinds avenues.

About 100 men have been gathering each morning at the center, opened last week on a Department of Water and Power lot a few blocks west of Lankershim Boulevard. But only about five prospective employers show up on an average day, said Bill Molina, management analyst for the Community Development Department, which runs the center.

At a dedication ceremony Tuesday, city officials and others who helped organize the center encouraged employers to hire workers from the site rather than the street corners and parking lots where many day laborers still congregate.

Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi, whose district includes the center, said the facility provides a “responsible place” for men to wait for work.

“This benefits the entire community, not just the people who come here looking for work,” Bernardi said. “We want to make this an overwhelming success so we can expand it into other areas of the Valley.”

Bert Corona, executive director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, an immigrant rights group that helped organize the center, said the site is “humanizing the effort for those who hunger for work.”

While they wait for work, men at the center are offered free coffee, pastries and English lessons. Picnic tables and portable toilets have been set up at the site.

The center is intended to serve the 150 to 200 laborers who congregate on Lankershim between Strathern and Saticoy streets and reduce problems caused by loitering workers. Funded by the city, the facility costs about $3,500 a month to operate.

It is the second such gathering place for workers in the city of Los Angeles. A similar facility was opened in Harbor City last fall.