Yes, Virginia, there IS a problem, pt 3

Before the Day labor site was created, there were 4 overcrowded houses on my street alone. It started with one overcrowded home in 2001 and the issues and problems had increased to 4 homes by 2005. Even though neighbors and I were reporting all forms of overcrowding issues to zoning officials they had to follow zoning laws which gave the landlords time to shuffle the people who were living in the homes time to go to other overcrowded homes temporarily while zoning inspected the homes that were under observation.

Many neighbors, including myself have come home at night to strange men sitting on their porch furniture waiting for someone to let them into the house.

What has happened is that their previous residence was being inspected by zoning and the landlord had told the men to go to a different home for a week or two until zoning officials were saitified.

The men who were told to go live elsewhere for a few weeks, would sometimes make a mistake and forget the exact address they were supposed to go to and would end up waiting by the front or back doors at a nearby but incorrect residence.

I ask you: How would you like your wife, children or extended family to come home to strange men sitting on your front or back porch? Especially since some of the men were insistent enough that that was where they were supposed to be staying/living that residents called 911 and had to have the police remove the indivduals from their property?

If overcrowding is a myth why does Loudoun County, VA and Herndon, VA now have on their County and town payrolls over 12 people who handle overcrowding and zoning complaints alone?

Why does Tom Rust, a VA State Representative, list Overcrowding as a "growing problem" on his site: Link is here.

The text of the press release on Tom Rust's site is as follows:

Overcrowding

For the past several years, residential overcrowding has been a growing problem across Northern Virginia. Skyrocketing housing costs have contributed to the growing demand for low-cost options. Unfortunately, many homeowners have begun using this to their advantage, effectively creating “boarding houses” where twenty or thirty people may be sleeping at one time.

In addition to the impacts on property values, aesthetics, and public infrastructure, residential overcrowding creates a genuine public safety hazard, especially to those living in overcrowded conditions. Several fatalities have been reported this year, both in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, due to fires in overcrowded homes. The illegal landlords who own these homes often fail to maintain smoke detectors and make little or no provision for the escape of their tenants. Two were killed in a recent fire in Bailey’s Crossroads, where fire officials reported nearly thirty people were living.

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After the day labor site was installed in Herndon, VA in December 2005, my neighbors and I formed a loose knit neighborhood watch to track any increases or decreases in overcrowding and other zoning issues we reported to zoning.

In the last six months we have seen over a 100 percent (in December 2005, we were monitoring 4 houses, 6 months after the day labor site was installed there are now 8 active houses we are monitoring and routinely filing zoning complaints on) increase in overcrowding and other zoning complaints as contractors move out of Herndon into neighboring areas where taxes are less, there are no HOAs in many instances, and zoning issues are harder and take longer to enforce due to the size of the county, the limited number of people that are addressing zoning complaints, the rate at which the county is growing (Loudoun County, VA is the fastest growing county in the USA and has been for the past 3 years running), and the several loopholes in zoning laws that still exist.

Crime is also on the rise. This year alone I have already been awakened by a Loudoun county Sheriff's Deputy, at 5AM, who had to inform me that one of my car windows, along with all the other cars parked on that side of the street that night had been shot out. The sheriff's deputy stated that it was most likely done for fun by "local youths (read "wanna be" gang members trying to impress their friends)."

I personally do not feel it is racist to expect people to maintain their property and houses to Federal, state, and local county building codes and zoning standards since I also have to follow all Federal, state, and local laws. I would just like my neighbors to do the same.

I have long since given up caring what names people call me for my views. People who call me racist, unchristian, and all the other BS names they can muster have most likely never lost any sleep at night wondering if their child or family pet would be safe to play in the backyard unsupervised after reporting a neighbor for yet another zoning or overcrowding violation.

Nor have they had to call the cops to get the strange men off their property who were found lounging on their porch furniture waiting for someone to let them in since they have mistakenly gone to the wrong boarding house for the night.

I am personally done being compassionate since I have had to combat, on a daily basis, overcrowding and other zoning issues, increased crime, rising taxes, and lower property values. I want Federal, state, and local laws enforced. Period.

People seem to forget that there are legal ways to get into this country and work. They also seem to forget that there are people who have waited patiently for over 20 years for the privilege of immigrating to the US while others skip ahead of the legal line and could not be bothered to do anything legally. Especially since there is nothing preventing them from simply entering the US and starting to work in the US "off the books."

America is already one of the most compassionate nations on immigration in the world. Even here in the US there has to be limits.

As far as immigration on the Federal level, I believe that the US should enforce the laws that already exist instead of trying to add more useless legislation that amounts to zero enforcement.

There would be no need for local officials to install day labor sites or think of creative ways to humanely combat overcrowding if employers were held accountable for the people they hire and found that it was no longer economically feasible to hire workers “under the table or off books.” If people who came here looking for work no longer were able to find "off the books" employment as easily as they can now, even temporarily, they will look for work elsewhere.

My input on the argument that Americans won’t do certain jobs anymore. All I have to say is this:

I have personally worked in some of the most menial and dirty jobs there are including cleaning black oil tanks on ships, sandblasting paint off ship hulls in ship yards, removing asbestos insulation off pipes and valves on old steam engines and boilers.

I have also cleaned toilets, cooked meals, and done every menial task they say Americans will no longer do.

Why did I do those jobs? Because, at the time, I could pay all my bills and have a little bit left over to buy a CD or go out to dinner at the end of the week. I was able to make a comfortable living on the wages I made. I doubt I could live on the wages companies are paying people now for the same jobs I used to do. Which is curious, since people keep mentioning a shortage of available workers, especially in the restaurant and hotel industries.

If that was REALLY the case then restaurant and hotel workers would be making more than minimum wage under the economic principle of supply versus demand.

Companies in America from the small contractor to the large corporations all want to keep wages and business costs low to improve their profit margins. Having an ever present cheap labor force is in their best interests and they will do almost anything to keep that cheap labor supply flowing....Including selling out fellow americans.