Racial & Economic Justice

El Centro Hispano and the Fair Jobs and Wages team of Orange County Justice United continue work to improve the work conditions for those in the informal job market in Orange County through a collaboration with the National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON).The NDLON has facilitated the opening of at least 30 worker centers nationwide.

During this coming week (June 20-26th) the NDLON Legal Programs Director and the East Cast Field Coordinator will be in Orange County. They will be meeting with workers and officials and getting to know the community. They will be holding a large meeting with workers to provide information on how worker centers operate on Thursday.

A meeting of the Day Laborer Taskforce will be held on Saturday June 25th from 3:00 to 5:00 pm at El Centro Hispano. During the meeting, a documentary on worker centers will be screened and those in attendance will have a chance to meet the NDLON staff and ask any questions.

The Chapel Hill Affordable Housing Technical Assistance Group concluded its meetings on Tuesday May 17^th by finalizing a draft of a 1-page Affordable Housing Strategy (below).  The one-pager has been emailed out to all those who attended a focus group and feedback sought. The final Strategy will be presented to the Town Council on Monday, June 13^th with participation of all Group members.

I believe this is a comprehensive strategy that, once passed by the Chapel Hill Town Council, will allow Town staff to move forward with it’s work to support and provide a broad range of affordable housing without having the need to continually seek approval of the Council.  

The Chapel Hill Town Council last night approved a special use permit (SUP) for the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service’s Community House at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr Boulevard and Homestead Road in a 6-2 vote after another dramatic public hearing. (The first part of the public hearing was held on March 21). Council members Czajkowski and Easthom voted against the application; council member Pease was absent.

The hearing began with the presentation of a petition from the lawyer for a group of neighbors asking that Mayor Kleinschmidt and council members Rich, Harrison, and Czajkowski recuse themselves from voting on the SUP application because they had ostensibly already made up their minds when they answered a question about the issue on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce candidate questionnaire during the 2009 elections.