Montgomery County police, responding to pleas from some business owners, have been cracking down on day laborers loitering at a Silver Spring strip mall, drastically reducing the number of people who congregate in the area.
The crackdown has left some store employees cheering, while others are nervous about paying the rent.
Montgomery police say the property management firm the Rappaport Companies, which represents strip-mall store owners located at the intersection of Veirs Mill and Randolph Road, asked for help in dispersing crowds.
Since Feb. 19, police have patrolled the area advising people the county has day labor centers that can help them obtain jobs and that continuing to hang out there could result in being charged with trespassing.
No one has been charged so far, but fliers hanging in shop windows advise that police plan to strictly enforce things such as disorderly conduct, trash on the ground, public urination, loitering and trespassing.
“These businesses have the right to prevent people who are not using these businesses from being on their property,” police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said. “You want to create an environment where the public feels safe and can easily use the businesses here in the shopping center. The county has provided locations for day labor centers and hiring agents.”
Although the county funds day labor centers in Silver Spring, Wheaton and Gaithersburg that provide legal protection, warm shelter and even health care and financial guidance for workers, some choose to seek work on street corners and store parking lots.
Day laborers interviewed by The Examiner say the worker centers are so crowded that some employers prefer to hire workers in less hectic areas, and that it is often easier to find work on the street than at a centerwhere jobs are given on a “first come, first serve” basis.
Employees at a local Dunkin’ Donuts shop said the crowds, which on warm days can number as many as 100 people, had all but disappeared from their parking lots since the outreach campaign began and that customers are happier.
The strip mall, however, is also home to a check-cashing store, a South American rotisserie chicken restaurant and a Hispanic market, whose store owners counted day laborers among their loyal customers.
“I agree that this area need cleaning up,” Nora Portillo, who operates the cash register at El Pollo Dorado, said in Spanish. “But for us, it’s bad for business. Just the fact that police are asking people what they are doing here scares some of our customers away. I hope we can still pay the rent.”
