Casa Latina Day Worker Center

I hired two workers from Casa Latina on Saturday, June 12^th. The landscaping guy was an incredibly hard worker, and was very skilled at trimming the hedges, weeding, etc. The lady who was helping me clean the house interior was also very hard. Both of them worked for 7 solid hours without a break. Both were very friendly. I would definitely use Casa Latina again, and will recommend them to others.
Regarding the pay scale — I think it was fair. I’d rather get good hard workers at $ 20ish an hour than haggle for someone for $ 10-​$ 15 and have them not work as hard.

rates for labor have increased. most jobs $ 20-​$ 22 an hour. No Insurance paid by casa latina. if something happens on the job, you’ll have to claim it with your home owners insurance. The other non-​profit day labor organization in town pays for insurance and has lower rates, but price isn’t everything. I would probably still hire casa latina workers for physically demanding work. anything involving ladders or power tools, I think it might be too much of a risk.

I have used Casa Latina in the past and have had very good success. Recently, I requested a worker and Casa Latina provided David. His work ethic, work, disposition, and attention to detail were fantastic. He was absolutely great to work with!
I would highly recommend that you provide a good lunch and have water available for your workers during the day. Make sure they have access to facilities. On cold days a hot beverage is always greatly appreciated! And tip them, they deserve it!

i have used Casa latina before and their work is reasonable (you get what you pay for). The reason i am leaving not so great review today is because they increased their rate by approximately 20%. Seriously, what makes you think that labor can charge contractors rate. the homeowner is responsible to carry all insurances and bring all equipment and carry the risk, so why an unskilled labor will cost more that a college grad hourly rate?

Hired 2 gentlemen to jackhammer up a reinforced concrete patio and pathway in our backyard. I’m talking back breaking work. They worked solid from 8:45−4:30 (minus lunch– we made them sandwiches and provided drinks). They were so awesome, and we’re hiring them a few more days to continue the job. Super happy with the experience so far.

My experiences with Casa Latina have been overwhelmingly positive.
I have utilized them for various short term help with housekeeping, yard work, moving services and general labor. In all cases my workers showed up, worked hard, had a great outlook and got the work completed just as I had requested.
My now long-​term housekeeper is no longer a just a Casa Latina worker, she is a friend and a trusted member of our family — and I am so glad to have found her through this wonderful service.
The organization, training, dignity and support for access to fair wages that Casa Latina provides workers is so important.
If you are a trustworthy and respectful employer, this is a wonderful program to partner with!
As the Spring arrives this year I will again call Casa Latina to help with our yard work and general home projects — and I look forward to it!
Pro Tip: Have a lunch and some water available for your workers during the day. Make sure they have access to facilities if they are available. On cold days a hot beverage is also appreciated!
I also provide bus fare exact change for those who need it, in an envelope at the end of the day. It’s a general courtesy and will help them get back home easily.

I was very excited to learn about Casa Latina and had heard great things from friends who had hired them for yard work. So. I booked them last weekend for cleaning and moving services.
The cleaning service person arrived at our home on time. She was pleasant and friendly. I worked on my gardening while she cleaned. 45 minutes later, I found out she was still cleaning my brand new (2 weeks old) stove that has barely been used?!! I had to ask her to move on to something else. What really triggered a 1 star was when she was done, we walked to my front door together. She brought a duffle bag with her which i wasn’t paying attention to but there was an additional Bartell plastic bag with my cleaning agents in it. She realized i was watching and as i watched she literally whipped out my chlorox wipes, stainless wipes, and… bottle after bottle of cleaning agents! The bag was full. My initial question was why are those in her bag at the front door. But as the bottles started materializing out of the bag. I just wanted her out of my house. I will never use them for cleaning again and will not recommend them to any of my friends.
I thought it was bad luck on the cleaning lady, so the following day we followed through with their moving services. We hired two guys and told them we have heavy furnitures that needs to be hauled up narrow, steep stairs. The guys showed up on time and they are pleasant guys. However, one of the gentleman was my size and looked to be about 60. I am about a 100 lbs. I thought we hired movers?! No? My husband does not feel comfortable about hiring the guy. He worries about injuries that may occur under our watch as he knows the job ahead of us would not be easy. We had to let them go. It was tough and we felt bad. It was also tough for us as well, we had planned our day, booked our UHAUL. Now we are stranded with no helpers. Instead we moved on to Home Depot and found two laborers. It worked well. We know what we are getting. They are pretty tough guys and they struggled a bit to get those furnitures up. But they made it with minor scratches on the wall and a lot of huffing/​puffing and sweat.

I have had very good experiences with hiring workers from Casa Latina. Juanita P. has been cleaning for me for about 1 year. She has been great. Also, I have hired Roberto R. twice, (he is in his early 50’s) for yard work He’s a very hard worker and very organized. Both of these people speak decent English. I highly recommend them.

A perfect experience. Had the van service bring someone to help with tree planting and ivy control. Domingo was a hard worker, knowledgeable in tree planting, an overall nice guy and did I mention a hard worker? Will use the service again.

I hired two gardeners from Casa Latina to do weeding and major spring clean up for our large backyard, side yards and front yard. Most recently Miguel, a charming older man who grew up in Texas and also Alfonso. This is the second year i have using Casa Latina workers. I am consistently delighted with the amount of work they accomplished in 5 – 6 hours. They arrive on time either by van or bus and have been very pleasant to work with. I generally ask for at least one of the gardeners to have english skills and that has consistently worked out well. you have to provide the tools for them and nice to have garden gloves as well, though some of the higher skilled gardeners may bring some of their own gloves.
scheduling is easy, by phone or online.
in general a fantastic value for gardening services. I recommend them to my friends.

I booked two workers for a full eight hour day of moving dirt for a retaining wall using the online form. Somewhere in the online form it says something to the effect that your request isn’t accepted until it is confirmed by Casa Latina. You do get a confirmation email immediately, but I think it is just a confirmation they got your request, not that they will fulfill it: it was definitely confusing and unclear.
In any case, even with four days notice for the work (they ask for 48 hours) which was simple, virtually no-​experience-​required labor I never got any sort of communication from Casa Latina whatsoever – no confirmation, no decline of my request.
I love this idea and want to support it but they need stronger communication. I’m giving them two stars because I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are more responsive over the phone – if you decide to use them I definitely suggest picking up the phone to avoid repeating my experience. Maybe I was just lost in a tech snafu? Or maybe their silence is supposed to be tacit denial of your request for labor? I’m honestly not sure and its not worth my time to try and find out, really. I guess I’ll hit up some guys outside Home Depot on Monday…

I wanted to like this place, but unfortunately it and the worker I hired for a regular housecleaning were completely unreliable.
The people are nice enough and I speak decent Spanish so I figured I’d hire them to see if we could get regular housecleaning. The first time I submitted my request online (since they’re only open in the mornings to call!), no one responded to me. I called them and was told it should be no problem to get a housekeeper on Saturday since I had requested it early in the week. When Saturday came around, I got a call while out that no one was available all day. Luckily, I wasn’t able to answer the phone and the guy from the center called back and said he found someone.
The lady who came (I won’t name names) was late (by over an hour) and quite slow, but thorough. We figured the rate was decent and since it was her first time at our house, it may take longer. We asked if she could come back every 2 weeks and made an appointment for another day. That time, she came on the wrong day, but luckily we were home. 2 weeks later, she came 2 hours late because she got lost and couldn’t call us for some reason. Then she chose the wrong day again. Finally, she simply didn’t show up.
Overall, a horrible series of experiences. We finally have found awesome housecleaners who are cheaper and faster so we’re thankful we didn’t have to suffer through another poor experience. For a group that tries to employ people who may not have many opportunities, they sure do a terrible job of ensuring their workers (at least the housecleaners) have a good work ethic and can at a minimum show up when agreed upon. And, the fact the organization itself is so unresponsive really makes me wonder if they are dedicated or not.

Love love love!
I will never burden my friends again with another move. I hired 2 guys and they showed up 15 mins early, worked their asses off, packed everything safely and wouldn’t let me help. All for $ 16 an hour.
Also hired 2 ladies for move out cleaning and they got the place cleaner than we moved in. Only tip is that you should have the proper supplies for them to work with — our bed ended up a little scratched but that was bc we only had plastic to wrap it in. Great service!

Eugene and Jesus helped us move yesterday and were professional, fast and a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend this organization and would use them again.

Above and beyond!
This will now be the 5^th time we have used Casa Latina and our expectations have always been exceeded. The initial booking process is simple and the workers have always been very professional and helpful.
One thing that has changed since the last time we used them is there is now an option to have the workers delivered to your address by shuttle service. This is super convenient and a great improvement over having to collect people at the bus stop.
At the end of the job you pay the worker in cash. You know what the rate is upfront and honestly the work ethic and quality of work had always been exceptional.
I have recommended Casa Latina to several friends and they have all been very pleased with the high quality and professional work and ethic.
It’s nice to work with a company that cares about people’s dignity and making sure that they are properly looked after.
Great job!

A wonderful mission, helpful office staff and great workers. We have hired a few workers for various projects and they have been sweet & hardworking. Be honest with your need for English speaking if your project is more complicated or you are a poor non-​verbal communicator. The office staff does a great job of honestly representing people – be sure to ask for what you need!
Will most definitely continue to use them!

I visited Casa Latina for a project and all I can say is that I was very impressed and amazed by the staff and members. It was very well organized, clean, and offers multiple resources for Latino adults.
The members I met were all very humble, happy, hard working, and aspiring people. I would recommend anyone who needs a worker or knows of someone who might benefit from the resources to turn here.

ZERO STARS, RIP OFF (subpar work, did only 40% of the job!!!)
I paid $ 120 for 5 man hours and this is what I didn’t get:
Our home is a standard rambler 4 bedrooms and 1.75 bath, 1200 sqft.
They DID NOT: (please look at the pictures I took)
–clean the full bath AT ALL
— fully clean the 0.75 bath
–vacuum 3 of the 4 bedrooms AT ALL
–clean the kitchen floor AT ALL
— sweep or vacuum the laundry/​basement hallway AT ALL
— clean the dinning room table or wipe it down with wood polish provided AT ALL
They DID:
— leave the dinning room furniture in disarray to give the illusion that the floor had been cleaned, but it WASN’T
–leave a slipper on the already made bed
— leave the 0.75 bath that was supposedly cleaned in disarray
–leave their unwashed cup in the sink
I called CL on Tuesday and booked 2 house cleaners for Sat. I was told the hourly rate is $ 15. and that there is a 5 hour minimum. So I said I have a small child can I book 2 people for 2.5 hour instead? Yes absolutely, that will be $ 75.
I booked them from 2 – 4:30, they didn’t show up by 2:15, I called CL. Since this was on a Sat afternoon there is no support staff on call at the CL to speak to. I left 2 messages and they didn’t get back to me. The 2 women showed up at 3! And showed me their papers that stated 3, so I said OK looks like there was a transcription error by the phone operator. Come on in and start cleaning. (by this time my husband and I had started the cleaning and the kitchen was mostly done, except the floors and his office had been dusted.
I handed the 2 ladies (Doris and Ines) a list of what I needed done in each room. I then proceeded to walk them through the list, but they said no need we can go off the list.
Keep in mind that I asked the telephone operator if they had a list of things they do? He said no you can provide one, this is why we are so good at what we do because our workers go above and beyond. They will do deep cleaning and even wash clothes.
When it came to payment we said who do we make the check out to? To each of us individually, and it will be $ 60 for each person!!!
But I was told it’s $ 75 for 5 hours!!! NO! You have to pay $ 60 for each of us!
By this time we just wanted them out of our home!!! We paid them and thankfully they left.
What a rip off. For $ 120 I got my living room, one hallway and a bedroom vacuumed. My usual cleaning lady who was unavailable today charges me $ 75 and is in and out in 3 hours.
I wanted to love this organization, but I won’t be using them again.
Important to note, I am fluent in English, the man I spoke with on the phone was fluent in English and Doris spoke English just fine.

You know what sucks? IVY SUCKS. After spending an inordinate amount of time and a ridiculous amount of effort trying to hack back ivy that the previous homeowner had allowed to grow to waist level (not an exaggeration – we literally did not know our yard had a lower level when we bought the place, because the ivy had grown up and completely filled the entire space and covered the retaining wall) — we gave up and called Casa Latina.
Two men arrived and in about six hours the ivy was OUT. I’m talking cut to the ground, roots dug out, 30 bags of yard waste full. It’s been several years, and it has never returned! (Well, a little bit on occasion pokes through the retaining wall, but we can manage that and we have GRASS TO WALK ON people.
Caveats: You have to supply the tools, so make sure you have what they need or you’ll be going to the hardware store a lot.
They were nice guys, too.

Another positive experience with a Casa Latina worker today.
This is a wonderful organization to support, and an excellent way to
find a screened & capable dayworker.
Tip: remember to tip your worker well– these folks are hard workers.