NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (PIX11) -- It's a corporate policy that's making an already difficult living situation all the more challenging, according to day laborers, who are directly affected by the change. They said that measures taken this spring by the Home Depot to keep them out of the parking lot at the company's store in New Rochelle is a reversal that's having a strongly negative impact on the laborers' ability to get selected for contracting gigs and odd jobs. Home Depot, however, stands by its policy, which it contends has been in place for years. 

This month, though, according to the laborers, the company posted bright yellow signs with bold, black print along the perimeter of the parking lot and on the front of the building. "No loitering; no solicitation; police enforced," read the signs, which face about two dozen day laborers, who stand, sit and, occasionally, lie in the grass outside of the Home Depot parking lot. 

"This is new," said Jesus Capistran, who lives a couple of blocks away from the store. 

The change, some of the day laborers told PIX11 News, has reduced the amount of work each of them can get. They said that it had been easier to connect with contractors or residents in need of short-term labor when they'd been available in the parking lot. 

An advocate for them, Diana Sanchez, the regional coordinator for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, agreed.  

"They've been there for a whole decade," she said, about the laborers' presence in the Home Depot parking lot. 

She added that not allowing the men into the parking lot transforms the men's routines in ways that affect their bottom lines. 

"They're just looking for jobs," she said. "All they've been doing is just standing there, looking for work."

Home Depot, however, said that the men were not supposed to be on the store's grounds in the first place. 

"Our associates and customers are our top priority," the corporation said in a statement, "and we invest significant resources in keeping them safe. These include technology, personnel and close relationships with local law enforcement."

"Like many businesses in the community," the statement continued, "we have a longstanding non-solicitation policy at our stores."

The New Rochelle scene was not nearly as crowded or as busy as that at the next closest Home Depot, in Throggs Neck in the Bronx. 

There, at least 60 men waited just outside of the store's parking lot, with some actually sitting on a small knoll just inside of the store's perimeter. At various times, PIX11 News observed vehicles pulling up to day laborers with offers of work; each car was swarmed by 18 to 24 of the men.

In New Rochelle on Tuesday, Ednette Bonhommette, who lives a few houses away from the Home Depot there, and where, as her fully planted and well-tended garden showed, she's a regular customer, said that the day laborers aren't a problem, either in the parking lot or outside of it. 

"I was just at Home Depot," she said. "They don't bother me." 

However, the day laborers said that they're bothered that they're not able to get jobs the way they used to at the best-known hardware store in town. 

Their advocate is calling for the company to compromise. 

"We want to sit down and meet and discuss what's happening," Sanchez said. 

She said that her organization, NDLON, as well as a sister organization, United Community Center of Westchester, would like for Home Depot to create a designated area in the parking lot for day laborers. 

This year, two laborers had been detained by New Rochelle police on trespassing charges after entering into the store, according to Sanchez. 

When asked for a comment, the office of New Rochelle's mayor, Yadira Ramos-Herbert, said in a statement, "This is an important issue to all of us, and we are working with all involved to bring the matter to a resolution.”