There are lots of opportunities for you to get involved in our community. On a regular basis, ACC Colorado will post these items. If you have an event or need that you'd like us to announce, email the details to Rebecca Askew at raskew@circuitmedia.com.

El Centro Humanitario, Denver’s day laborer organization, seeks a real-estate attorney

El Centro Humanitario is Denver’s only day laborer organization. We provide a safe and dignified gathering place for immigrant day laborers to seek employment and education. Founded in 2002 through the leadership of workers and community advocacy groups, El Centro opened its doors to one of the most vulnerable populations in Denver, allowing immigrant workers to come off the dangerous and chaotic street corners and into an indoor center, where their human rights were protected from unscrupulous employers and which improved neighborhood street conditions. El Centro provides an employment program, a pro-bono labor law program, a women’s project, and educational programs such as English classes, computer training, and a job skills program to help workers move toward self-sufficiency.

Background: El Centro is looking for space in Aurora to open a gathering place modeled after the successful center in Denver. Currently, a significant number of workers congregate on the corner of Colfax and Dayton St. in downtown, or “Original” Aurora to seek daily employment. There they are exposed to the same exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous employers that their fellow workers experienced in Denver before El Centro opened. Because it will be most effective to have our center close to where the market already operates, we are looking for space near the current street corner. Our presence in the community will ensure the safety of the workers, who will be there looking for work whether we are there or not, and will enhance public safety for residents and business owners in the area.

El Centro, however, has faced tremendous difficulty in finding a location due to strong opposition from the city council person representing the area, and from a few developers who own a number of properties in the area of Colfax and Dayton. Even though the majority of city council members in Aurora agree with and support the concept of creating an indoor place for day laborers, the tension surrounding where to locate such a center has not been resolved. We know from experience and from national research that a successful center must locate near where the workers already congregate, but city officials are pressuring us to locate outside of the area of Colfax and Dayton in an industrial area far from where the inform.

Request: El Centro is seeking a real estate attorney who will provide us with legal consultation related to purchasing /leasing a building for our Aurora center, as well as negotiating on El Centro’s behalf with the city of Aurora and the owner of the building as needed. This work would include:

· Does the city of Aurora or the councilperson representing a particular district have the right to prevent us from moving into that district if the building we have identified has proper zoning for our proposed use? City officials have asserted that we cannot locate a new non-profit in this area, and we are in need of accurate advice regarding how far the city can go in denying the right of a specific non-profit organization to locate in this area.

· What is the best option for us to resolve the conflict and to move into a building within a timely manner?

· What real estate solution – leasing or renting – should we pursue? We have identified several buildings that are for sale with low down payment options, and we seek good solid legal advice as to whether we should pursue these, with due consideration to our financial situation and the somewhat controversial nature of our work.

Contact: Minsun Ji, Executive Director, El Centro Humanitario, mji@centrohumanitario.org or 303-329-4424. More information about the organization can be found at www.centrohumanitario.org.