Another nonprofit supporting illegal aliens and hiding behind "the homeless"
Temecula group reaches out to day laborers, homeless
Day laborers who gather in Temecula every morning may soon have other work options and a chance for a better life.
A faith-based charity is teaching job-seeking skills to homeless men, many of whom spend their days on a dirt lot that has become a focal point for day laborers and those who hire them.
The Brook also wants to start landscaping and custodial businesses to employ the men.
Day laborers try to flag down vehicles along Old Town Front Street in Temecula last week- end. A charity called The Brook plans to assist them with writing resumes and interviewing.
"We're not going to give these jobs to anybody," said Gayle Kreeger , of Temecula, a Brook volunteer and part-time real estate agent. "We want people to have a high standard of excellence."
Kreeger said the job-seeking classes consist of eight sessions over two months. Students learn how to write resumes and interviewing skills.
The Brook is working under the umbrella of Project TOUCH, a homeless outreach group that runs a shelter at a former Temecula church.
On a given day, anywhere from a few to several dozen men stand or sit on the lot at the corner of First and Old Town Front streets, hoping to land work for the day. Some are homeless, living in camps along nearby Murrieta Creek. Others rent rooms and trailers. A few said they live in houses with their wives and children and struggle to make ends meet.
On Friday morning, a small mob of men rushed to the passenger-side window every time a van or pickup pulled up.
Within three hours, five vehicles arrived seeking help for jobs such as moving heavy equipment, yard work and passing out fliers door to door for nine consecutive hours.
Chuck Searer, a Temecula-based insurance broker who is helping the group, estimated that about 30 percent of the day laborers stay at least part time at the Project TOUCH shelter.
"For the large part, they're the people that are trying," Searer said. "It's not that they're lazy. It's not that they're bad people. They're good people and lots of time it's some unfortunate set of circumstances that fell upon them."
Several people said any employment help that The Brook might extend, would be a godsend. But some added the men are in greater need of paying work than training.
"I would love to have a full-time job," said Rick Pangus, a 49-year-old who was laid off from a landscaping company. "But honestly I've hit a point in life where it seems like it would take a miracle to get a steady job. But some people are willing to give miracles."
Jose Luis Sizumbo, 50, said in Spanish that while training is good, the day laborers are more worried about finding work so they, and in some cases their families, don't go hungry.
"Training would be a great help but there aren't any clients, there's no work. The economy isn't helping," Sizumbo said. "I have friends who have gotten training in plumbing, welding, being a mechanic and they've wasted their money because there's no work. Without work, we can't eat."
Luis Acosta, 37, said he thinks starting a small business to employ some of the workers in need would go much further than training in resume-writing or interview skills.
"A lot of people out here don't know how to write or don't speak English. But we know how to do construction or welding. Some of us have gone as far as Pasadena to apply for jobs cleaning houses," said Acosta, who added that neither he nor his friends who applied were hired.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/...4.256d982.html
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