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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

News Finally! The Day Labor Site's Good Neighbor Agreement

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 6:21 PM

It's been a long and hard road drafting the required Good Neighbor Agreement that sets up the community rules for the role Portland's new Day Labor Center should play in its area. Hashing out an agreement that involved a dozen stakeholders, a $200,000 investment and hot personal and politically issues was obviously going to be difficult and it hit some bumps in May when Voz pushed back the deadline for the site's opening, but here it is! Two months after the site opened, the 15-page agreement is finally approved and bearing the signatures of the Kerns' Neighborhood Association, the City, VOZ, the police and seven neighborhood business owners. Download the thing for yourself to check it out.

The agreement itself lays out a broad framework for how the site and its neighbors should communicate and the responsibilities of the site. The agreement's goals are pretty straight-forward and non-controversial.

- Initiate and maintain open communication and understanding between parties
- Develop a procedure for resolving problems
- Maintain neighborhood safety an livability
- Reduce crime and fear of crime in the neighborhood

These all reflect the main problems that led to the creation of the center: the belief that day laborers standing on street corners increases crime in the neighborhood and the trouble business owners and English-speaking neighbors have talking to the laborers about their problems. The site is supposed to be a place neighbors can turn to for help resolving problems with laborers instead of just getting frustrated or going to the police. That's why one of the most notable aspects of the agreement is the dedication resolving problems within the community rather than having to call in the police or City to negotiate every dispute. "The first line of communication will be one-on-one via in-person conversation," states the agreement, which requires the site director to give his cell phone number to everyone who signs the agreement so they can call him to discuss problems even after site hours.

The agreement also says VOZ will address the nuisances committed by labor site participants within the four block-square "impact area" and participants who look for work on street corner rather than at the site but doesn't bind VOZ to meeting any set numerical goal of reducing the number of people still on the street corners. This is important because some neighbors thought the site would get rid of the corner altogether, which wasn't VOZ's goal and doesn't seem possible. Business owners, though, are encouraged to post signs telling people about the center -- part of an education campaign that the site needs to get more employers down there hiring workers.

The agreement makes the important distinction between "participants" of the site, whom VOZ is responsible for and will monitor, and people who wait for work on the corners but don't use the site. This might be kind of difficult to parse out in practice. Some guys use the site only occasionally, what exactly should happen if they commit a crime but haven't used the center in a month? Good thing they're establishing a procedure to resolve problems!

 

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