Today marks the 6-month anniversary of Portland’s day labor center on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
While workers have been enthusiastic about using the center, employers have been slow to catch on to the idea.
The group has spent some of their contract money to build a new structure next to their portable trailer at the site, to shelter some of the workers from the weather, as they wait.
The center was originally conceived to get workers off street corners and into a central, clean and safe space.
It has become a target of anti-immigration protesters, who have picketed outside and even attacked workers.
But a number of much larger demonstrations in support of the workers have been held since the center opened in May of this year. Romeo Sosa is with Voz, the not-for-profit organization hired by the city to run the Day Labor center.
- KBOO