9 folks related to the San Francisco Day Labor program died throughout the pandemic.

Francisco Herrera arrived at the San Francisco Day Labor Program on Cesar Chavez Street early July 4th. To his surprise, he received a call from his dispatcher Louis Legowski. But it wasn’t Legowski on the phone. Instead, his mother told Herrera that she found her son, a former union painter, dead in his chair. In recent years Legowski had linked day laborers with job seekers. Now he is dead at the age of 55 with no indication of the cause of death.

Obituary notice for Louis Legowski, the San Francisco Day Labor Program dispatcher, who died suddenly at his home.

• This was the ninth death related to the San Francisco Day Labor program in the past year alone – a death rate far higher than in recent years. That’s nine deaths in a group of just 138 active members.

“It’s intense,” said Herrera. While the coroner has not yet identified Covid as the cause of any of the deaths, Herrera believes they are all related to Covid. Herrera believes the lack of housing and adequate medical care during the pandemic may have played a role in her death.

“As a group, we felt the blow of Covid. Of course, day laborers have died in 30 years of this work, ”but Herrera has never before seen so many deaths in 12 months.

Francisco Herrera before the San Francisco Day Labor Program, which advocates for day laborers. Photo by Clara-Sophia Daly.

“We paid a high price,” added Herrera. “It seems to have something to do with health and previous illnesses.” And of course living.

Over the past year, mortality rates have been adding up. First in autumn 2020, Carmelo Jimenez was found dead in his shower in his single room (SRO) at The Dudley on Sixth Street. “We just found him dead,” said Marco Figueroa in Spanish, a fellow day laborer who lives three doors from Jimenez’s room, and looked after Jimenez after a few days no one had seen him and a foul smell emanating from his room.

Just days earlier, Jimenez, who was from Mexico, picked up a box of groceries from the Food Hub at 701 Alabama Street. The San Francisco Medical Examiner has no record of him on its system.

Then, James Burke, a 35-year-old man struggling with mental health problems who often stopped by the day work schedule for a cup of coffee or some food, was found dead on the steps outside Leonard Flynn Elementary School where he had made a makeshift bed.

According to the coroner’s death record, Burke’s parents hung up before details of his death could be released. His official cause of death was “acute mixed intoxication (fentanyl and methamphetamine)”.

And then Jorge Canoe, a day laborer who had survived a confirmed Covid case, died suddenly in his SRO at the Cadillac Hotel, according to Herrera and his friend Joaquin Gutierrez, who was also staying at the hotel. The coroner said he was pronounced dead at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital, a short walk from the hotel. The hospital could not be reached to confirm his cause of death.

Valdez, executive director of Dolores Street Community Services, realized that Cano, who was undocumented, had diabetes and other pre-existing conditions that put him at high risk. “He could very likely have died of Covid,” she said.

Next came the news from another member that Miguel Hernandez, a day laborer, had also died. And although the Cuban Hernandez had not been active in the day labor program for a long time, it was still a blow. His case is still being investigated by the coroner.

According to the coroner, “pending means that the doctor is still working on the investigation and a cause and type of death have not been determined.”

Of the approximately 2,000 to 3,000 day laborers living and working in San Francisco at any given time, only 138 are members of the San Francisco Day Labor program. It is unclear how many among the larger community or program members had Covid. Herrera said 80 percent of the San Francisco Day Labor program employees tested positive for Covid in the past year.

Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of UCSF’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and co-founder of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, said the community’s profile is definitely at greater risk.

“Unfortunately, those who are most marginalized are not only at higher risk for Covid but also at higher risk of dying, and we don’t know the cause of death.”

She found that the key workers she studied, and day laborers in particular, are often concerned about access to health care because of their immigrant status or economic barriers, which in turn puts them at higher risk for health problems.

According to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, 115 Latin American San Franciscans have died of Covid. That’s 20.6 percent of the city’s total deaths, a disproportionate number when you consider that Latinx residents only make up 15.2 percent of the city’s population.

In San Francisco, 29 cases have been linked to SROs that are home to many day laborers.

In the dense living conditions of many day laborers in San Francisco, transmission rates are fast, says Dr. Bibbins-Domingo. “So if there is an infection, it is very difficult not to spread it to another person who is in this environment.”

“The death toll from COVID is just the tip of the iceberg,” Bibbins-Domingo said.

“It’s Covid, plus other deaths likely to be Covid-related but not yet diagnosed as Covid … plus deaths related to other health conditions that have worsened due to the pandemic and the concurrent economic crisis during the pandemic … real pandemic-related.” Deaths … even if not all of them are covid. ”

– Dr. Bibbins-Domingo

Herrera agreed. These numbers, he said, “point to the vulnerability” of day laborers, who often live in fear of not being able to pay the rent for their room or of not having enough money to buy groceries. It doesn’t matter to save their money to give back to their families in other countries.

Hugo was another day laborer reported dead by a member of the San Francisco Day Labor Program during the pandemic. The cause of his death is unknown.

And day laborers Javier Rosas collapsed at his home on the 16th and mission days after recovering from a stay with the San Francisco General due to a condition that made him thin and weak, Herrera said. After leaving the hospital, Rosas went straight back to work. A few weeks later he was dead.

“He could have had Covid and we didn’t even know it,” Herrera said, although the San Francisco Department of Public Health says Rosas died of “natural causes”. Oddly enough, the coroner listed his case as pending.

Day laborers like Javier Rosas, who was found dead in his apartment, often rent rooms in hotels or apartments where living conditions are poor. And often they have no close relatives or friends around to encourage them to seek medical help if needed or to report their deaths to the authorities.

In Rosas’ case, it was his contractor who found him dead in his apartment after Rosas abruptly stopped showing up at his construction site. He was a strong, reliable worker, and the contractor was concerned. A UCSF study of death rates during the pandemic found construction workers had a 49 percent increased risk of death compared to any other year.

While it is unclear how many day laborers are below the official Covid death toll, it is clear that key workers were the most vulnerable to death.

A team of UCSF researchers (including Dr. Bibbins-Domingo) published a study comparing death rates in California by occupation. Using death records from the California Department of Health, they found that the death rate for construction workers rose by 27 percent from the pre-pandemic average and by 39 percent for food and farm workers. During the pandemic, Latino Californians recorded a 36 percent increase in mortality, with a 59 percent increase in Latino food and agriculture workers.

Mortality Risk Ratios, Comparing Pandemic Time to Non-Pandemic Time, for California Residents 18-65 Years Old, by Occupation, March through October 2020. Courtesy of UCSF.

Interestingly, all nine people associated with the San Francisco Day Labor Program were men. The women’s collective, or “La Colectiva,” which has 120 members, most of whom are Latina domestic workers, suffered no deaths during the pandemic.

Ruth Barajas, the director of the Latino Task Force’s Resource Hub, often hired day laborers during the pandemic to do driving and maintenance jobs that kept their job going. “They were ready to move into jobs that would make them even more vulnerable,” she said.

In response to the stories of the nine people who died last year, she said, “It just seems pretty crazy – I mean…. This number is so significant. ”

In case of Jacinto Noh Canche, a day laborer murdered on May 22nd, his inability to find shelter made him live on the streets – and vulnerable to crime. He was shot dead in Rolph Park, where he often slept after losing his apartment. Since our obituary was published, a GoFundMe has been set up to allow Canche to pay for the repatriation of his body to Mexico. The Mexican consulate is legally obliged to pay for the transport of corpses back to Mexico, but has failed to comply with its agreement.

A poster was put together by Hernan Soto Acevedo, a member of the San Francisco Day Labor Program.

Juan Narvaez, a day laborer Herrera said previously had Covid, was also found dead in his house by a friend and day laborer. After recovering from Covid, he “died suddenly,” said Herrera.

“The death of our day laborers is a symptom of a lack of access to support and solidarity,” says Herrera. He believes that collaborative, community-based and community-led, solution-oriented work is required. In this way, we “all survive”, not just the “ultra-rich”.