No Money, Big Problems for Day Laborers

A Columbia native who frequently gathers along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens recently summed up the recession's effect on day laborers, saying “No work, no money, no good.  It’s big problems.” 

With construction jobs becoming increasingly difficult to find, workers who once had big American dreams fueled by a never-ending supply of new and improving real estate projects find themselves going weeks without work.

Some are simply packing up and going home, while others take to the streets, constructing their own nightly homes and making the best of an increasingly dour situation.

One woman, a 35-year old laundress named Ricarda Guzman, told AM NY she saw a bright future for her life in the city.  With help from her English-speaking 7-year old son, she expressed her hope, noting, “It’s a bad economy now. It will be better in maybe a year.  We have a different president. ‘Si, se puede.'"