Out of time and money

A storefront community center aimed at helping Latino

immigrants in Farmingdale, including many who work as day laborers, is in

danger of closing less than a year after it opened.

The Casa Comunal de Farmingdale, or the Farmingdale Community House, may

shut its doors by October, organizers said, if they cannot raise donations to

pay for expenses.

"I feel like we're being strangled," said Cristina Ruiz Diaz of HOLA, a

group of Latino professionals. "And it's really sad."

The center on South Front Street is not a hiring site, but offers

immigrants English classes, used clothing and bicycles, computer lessons and

immigration help. It was born out of a conflict between residents who felt

their quality of life was under siege by day laborers standing on street

corners, and advocates who defended their right to work.

Despite criticisms that they were helping undocumented immigrants, the

advocates forged ahead with the center as a compromise solution after two

failed attempts to create a day laborer hiring site.

"La Casa Comunal is a beacon of hope for the Latino day laborers and

immigrant residents of Farmingdale," Janet Liotta, a leader of Farmingdale

Citizens for Viable Solutions, wrote in an appeal for donations. "It is a place

where Anglos and Latinos work side-by-side to address the day laborer problem

and the issues that flow from it." Liotta said a $25,000 nonrenewable grant

from Catholic Health Services that the two groups and the Hempstead-based

Workplace Project have used to operate the center will run out by Oct. 1. The

groups sent out 500 letters to local residents and businesses in July appealing

for donations of as little as $10 a month to keep the center alive.

Rent is due

So far, organizers have raised $1,040 in monthly pledges from 65

individuals and three businesses. If they can increase that to $1,500 to cover

their monthly rent, they will be eligible for a $15,000 grant from the local

Catholic Campaign for Human Development for other expenses. The Catholic

Campaign grant requires fund-raising by recipients.

The center needs about $2,500 a month to operate, Liotta said. About 75

immigrants utilize its programs during peak times.

While the advocates have failed to convince local governments,

philanthropic organizations and most churches to provide funding, they say some

local residents are stepping forward. One of them, Ed Thompson, 63, of

Farmingdale, pledged $50 a month.

"I think they [the Latino immigrants] should be treated like human beings,

and they're not," he said. "The Hispanic day laborers remind me of the way the

Irish were treated 150 years ago."

But not all residents are disappointed the center may close. Adeline

Kuhlenkamp, 78, thinks the United States already has too many immigrants.

"Americans are starving," she said. "Take care of your own."

The center is seen by some as a success following conflicts advocates

encountered when they tried to run hiring sites aimed at getting the men off

street corners where they bargain for daily jobs in landscaping and

construction. The last one - located off Route 110 in Farmingdale - closed last

September, just one month after opening, because of anonymous threats and

complaints from residents and businesses.

Opposition from residents

Some residents oppose the sites because many of the laborers are

undocumented immigrants who work off-the-books and don't pay income taxes.

Their advocates say they have no legal way of emigrating to the United States,

and just want to work so they can feed their families back home. They say

contractors should share some blame because they pay the immigrants

off-the-books.

The day laborer debate is so divisive that advocacy groups in Farmingdale

and Farmingville, where violence has erupted over the issue, have abandoned the

idea of hiring sites and settled on opening privately funded community centers

where no hiring takes place. Formal hiring sites - some of them funded by

local governments - exist in Freeport, Huntington Station, Glen Cove and in

cities and suburbs around the country.

For the immigrants in Farmingdale, closing the community center would mean

losing a place that has become a gathering point for newcomers often lost in a

foreign and sometimes hostile culture, said Gabriel Contreras, 26, a day

laborer from Puebla, Mexico.

"It's like being part of a family," he said in Spanish.

Added Liotta: "They would lose an identity within this town that is not

pro-immigrant."