The Mountain View Day Worker Center has been granted a one-month reprieve as it struggles to find new quarters before its Aug. 31 move-out date from Calvary Church.
Center organizers have spent the last months scrambling to secure a new site that fits their needs and are now weighing options, including an undisclosed offer from another local church.
The center’s five-year lease with Calvary Church, located on California Street, was set to expire Tuesday. Director Maria Marroquin asked the church for a one-month extension to buy the center more time to find the right space.
The Calvary Church location has a kitchen, bathrooms and a large parking lot that workers use as a makeshift car wash area. Organizers have been unable to find comparable quarters with those features within their budget near or on El Camino Real.
A potential site at 1450 El Camino Real looked promising. It was affordable and ideally located, but its cramped space and lack of a kitchen and parking rendered it unsuitable.
Finances weigh heavily in relocation plans. The non-profit center can afford monthly rent in the $3,000-$5,000 range, not much by Peninsula standards.
John Rinaldi, a lawyer who gives legal advice to the center, said the center pays Calvary Church “considerably less” than $5,000 a month.
Marroquin said she hopes the center, which connects day laborers with employers and offers English classes, could stand on its own and not be housed in another church.
“I am really trying to get a place for the workers that’s only for them,” she said. “I have a dream we need to have our own building … but that probably takes longer.”
As for the August deadline, the center is banking on hopes that more possibilities will arise.
“We are very hopeful we will have a place by then,” Rinaldi said. “Besides the wish, there is no iron in the fire.”
If securing a new location takes longer than the one-month extension, workers could be forced to wait for work on the streets. Day Worker Center staff would then need to communicate with workers via cell phones to organize jobs.
Marroquin said such a setup would be problematic for women, who might not feel safe standing on the street. The prospect could also open up concerns for residents, who in past years have voiced frustration with day workers looking for jobs on street corners.
In 1999, Los Altos passed a “no-solicitation” ordinance that made it illegal for employers to solicit day workers on the streets. The ordinance was later ruled
unconstitutional in a federal court.
