Albany Park day laborers struggle with housing slump

Story by Jason Porterfield

Three years after starting a day laborer’s center on Chicago’s Northwest Side, organizers now struggle to find jobs for local workers as the city’s housing slump continues.

Homeowners and contractors come to the 3-year-old Albany Park Worker’s Center to find temporary workers. The workers continue to use the space to look for work, but jobs are becoming scarce.

Funded by government grants and private donations, the worker’s center was founded in 2004 to give day laborers a place to connect with potential employers and work on resumes and other job search material. According to staffers, about 40 workers a day use the center, a significant increase over the 10-15 people per day when the center first opened.

“Maybe it’ll pick up, and maybe it won’t. If not, I’ll have to go someplace else to look for work,” said Michael Carmen, 29, a day laborer who uses the center once or twice a week. “I take all kinds of work, and I usually find some way to earn a little money by the end of the day. But people aren’t coming around as much.”

Patricio Ordonez, the center’s coordinator, agreed that things are slow these days.

“We are starting to see the market slowing down a little, but so far it hasn’t been too bad,” Ordonez said. “In this area in particular, people are just starting to develop property, so there’s still a lot of local work.”

Ordonez remains optimistic that business will pick up.

“I think part of it is that we’re drawing more workers here,” she said. “People are starting to figure out we’re here to give them a place to find work, and they prefer this to standing in parking lots and waiting for contractors to drive up and offer them jobs.”

Before the center opened at 3416 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., day laborers in Albany Park would stand on street corners or in the parking lot of the local Home Depot, waiting for jobs. Business owners and residents often complained that they blocked traffic and harassed pedestrians.

In 2004, the Latino Union of Chicago, an organization based in the Pilsen, neighborhood, opened the center. Equipped with a dozen computers and resume materials and staffed by a rotating staff of three to five counselors trained to educate workers about wage theft, the center provides a comfortable alternative to standing outside.

Still, not everyone knows about it or prefers it to waiting on the corner. Though the number of users has increased, the center still struggles to inform workers and potential hirers about the center.

“I’m afraid we’re not familiar with that particular work center,” said Danielle Hagen, an assistant to Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th), in whose ward the center is located. “There used to be something like that on Elston, but it closed.”