Center for day laborers opens in Portland

The center, for now a trailer and an awning inside a parking lot owned by the Portland Development Commission, offers day laborers a safe and centralized place to seek work in landscaping and construction.

City leaders and activists are hoping they'll congregate there starting Monday morning instead of their usual gathering spots -- the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Interstate 84 and Southeast 6th Avenue and East Burnside Street.

City leaders will spend $200,000 on the center over the next two years. Their goal is twofold: Offer laborers a safe place where they won't be harassed and clear people for looking for work off the sidewalks in front of central eastside businesses.

The VOZ Workers Rights Education Project, a nonprofit, will manage the center. A site manager will make sure workers find employers whose needs match their skills, and will keep track of any complaints against employers.

"What we're doing is creating a space for folks who work in the city of Portland to do so safely, without harassment," said Mayor Tom Potter. "It represents the values of Portland. We believe people who want to work should be allowed to do that."