by Emily Burns
Carrboro Commons Writer

At dawn each day of the week, men gather at the intersection of Jones Ferry Road and Davie Road in Carrboro. These men, most of who are of Hispanic descent, convene in and across from the parking lot of the BP gas station, waiting for contracting companies to arrive and take a few people at a time to area construction sites.

The daily gathering has occurred at the location for several years, but over the past six months, residents of the surrounding neighborhood have begun to complain more about the activities that take place at the intersection after the construction companies and day laborers have come and gone.

The Carrboro Board of Alderman, which addressed the issue at its Oct. 23 public hearing, is actively searching for a solution to the problem, which has caused a great deal of controversy in the Carrboro community over the past several months. Currently, the board is working to pass an ordinance that would prohibit lingering at the intersection except during the hours of 5 to 11 a.m.

“It’s a matter of a neighborhood and of workers who want to go to work,” said Carrboro Alderwoman Randee Haven-O’Donnell. “We can’t just send everyone out.”

Haven-O’Donnell has been working closely with El Centro Latino’s Executive Director Ben Balderas and other organizations to find the best way to solve the issue of disruptive loitering at the intersection without preventing day laborers from finding work.

“The Hispanic-Latino workforce is a good, honest workforce that is absolutely needed in North Carolina’s economy,” Haven-O’Donnell said.

According to Haven-O’Donnell, there are two groups of people who congregate at the intersection. One group is the day laborers, and the other is the group of people who linger at the spot either because they did not obtain work for the day, or because they like to hang out at the intersection.

“The anti-lingering ordinance is only addressing the tip of the iceberg,” Haven-O’Donnell said.

Haven-O’Donnell and Balderas have identified three components of the issue that need to be addressed. First, the needs of the day laborers need to be identified so that their ability to obtain work is not hindered by the board’s attempts to solve the issue of disruptive loitering.

The second task is to find a way to get the leaders among the day laborers to buy-in to the board’s efforts to find a viable solution.

“Everything is predicated on the workers seeing the need and starting to take responsibility and self-direction,” she said.

Third, Haven-O’Donnell said that partnerships need to be formed with organizations that could serve an administrative function since many of the day laborers are undocumented residents of Carrboro.

The Board of Alderman and ECL have already gathered information about programs in other communities that have successfully addressed similar issues, but there are several tasks still to be accomplished.

Balderas said that the issue of the day labor pick-up location has come up more than once on the town government’s agenda, but since alternate space and town funding are not readily available, it is difficult to find a real solution.

“What they are proposing right now is a temporary fix,” said Balderas. “We are looking for a more permanent solution.”