SAN BERNARDINO (California) PRESS-ENTERPRISE February 15, 2007
Coachella center to get money to help farmworkers
State money is on its way to help farmworkers who are having difficulty making mortgage, rent and utility payments in the wake of last month's freeze. La Cooperativa Campesina de California, a statewide association in Sacramento, received $1.75 million in state emergency funds to distribute to several counties, including Riverside County. The Center for Employment Training in Coachella will receive the funding to help farmworkers laid off because of the January freeze. La Cooperativa will disburse the checks today, said Raul Meyreles, executive director for La Cooperativa. The money will be used to assist with mortgage, rent and utility bills, Meyreles said. Mirna Flores, director of the Coachella center, said her office had not been notified as of Wednesday evening of the dollar amount allocated to the center. "This will help with one month's rent, mortgage or utility bill," Flores said, adding that specific dollar amounts each person or family qualifies for also have not been determined. "We want to help as many as possible." Gov. Schwarzenegger also announced Tuesday that farmworker housing centers that were closed for the winter should be used as emergency shelters for those left homeless and unemployed after the January freeze. Rodolfo Piñon, community coordinator for the Desert Alliance for Community Empowerment in Coachella, said Schwarzenegger's executive order will not affect the Coachella Valley because the only migrant farmworker center, in Ripley, closed about three years ago.
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