Rural Laws: October, 2001 - Number #5

The Department of Housing and Community Development made $13 million in grants from the Joe Serna Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant program in August 2001, providing funds to build or rehabilitate farm worker housing in Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. HCD's farm-worker housing budget increased from $3.5 to $53.3 million in 2001-02.

Governor Gray Davis said: "Farmworkers do some of the most backbreaking work in our society, and the fruits of their labor are vital to our economy. This administration is committed to increasing the supply of safe, decent and affordable housing for agricultural workers and their families."

Madera county will rehabilitate 100 units of farmworker housing that are 20-years old. Residents of the two-, three- and four-bedroom units are year-round farmworkers and earn at least $3,835 each year from agriculture.

The federal Weedpatch camp near Lamont that John Steinbeck depicted in his 1940 novel on the Okie exodus to California, "The Grapes of Wrath," may be reopened for migrants. During the late 1930s, there were several hundred families living in one-room cabins and tents, as well as a community hall and a post office. A poster in Weedpatch reads: "California. Cornucopia of the World. Room for Millions of Immigrants. A Climate for Health and Wealth. Without Cyclones or Buzzards."

In Orland, Glenn county, the Chico-based Community Housing Improvement Program dropped a suit against Orland in October 2001 for imposing a "spot moratorium" on an east-side parcel where the organization had sought to build a 40-unit complex for non-migratory farm workers. The project was reduced to 33 units and moved. The complex will consist of two-, three- and four-bedroom units with rents ranging from $276 to $459 a month. Family incomes for the two-bedroom units will be capped at $14,210 and at $23,580 for the four-bedroom units.

California's median housing price in 2001 is $250,000. In the US, the average number of residents per housing unit is 2.6 and falling; in California, average residents per housing unit rose from 2.8 to 2.9 in the 1990s, and reached five in East Compton in Los Angeles county.

There are several reasons for the lagging construction of new housing, normally about 140,000 homes a year. One is immigration-newcomers with low wages and large families are more likely to include more residents per unit. Another is that, since Proposition 13, many cities say that the cost of providing services to new residents exceeds the property taxes collected from them. Local governments typically keep about 11 percent of the annual property taxes generated by a house, or $500 a year on a $300,000 house to help pay for police officers, streets and playgrounds.

The Washington DC-based National Low Income Housing Coalition estimated that the average US worker must earn at least $13.87 an hour--nearly three times the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour--to pay the rent on a standard two-bedroom apartment. In Southern California, where 500,000 workers earn the state's minimum wage of $6.25 an hour or $13,000 a year, a family with one worker would have to earn about $20 an hour to afford a $1,100-a-month, two-bedroom apartment. One guideline is that rent should not be more than 30 percent of gross income.

Napa. Napa employs a peak 6,000 farm workers in September and October, and many of the workers have a hard time finding temporary housing. The Napa Valley Housing Authority offers 174 beds in four camps managed by CHDC, and farmers and wineries offer an additional 85 beds in six to eight other camps.

A $3.4 million, 60-bed ($53,000 a bed) camp, owned by NHVA and operated by CHDC, is planned for five acres of land donated by Joseph Phelps Vineyards. Napa county is requesting a $1.6 million state grant, and raising the balance locally- including an $800,000 no-interest loan from the Napa County Housing Trust Fund and $650,000 from the Napa County Vintners Association's wine auction. The Phelps camp is expected to include four pavilions, with a 60-bed dormitory, soccer fields, training center, kitchen, multipurpose room and vegetable garden.

In order to receive the $1.6 million state grant, there may have had to be a vote by county voters to approve the project. Article 34 of the California Constitution, enacted in 1950, requires voter approval of "low-rent housing projects" financed with state or federal money. Napa county argued that camp residents are asked only to prove that they are farm workers and legally authorized to work in the US; their incomes are not checked, and thus the state declared that no vote was required.

Assemblywoman Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) introduced state legislation that would allow Napa wine grape growers to create a special assessment district, so that all grape growers would pay an assessment of up to $10 an acre to reap a special benefit-- having farm workers housed close to their operations. If approved, 650 growers with 40,000 acres would contribute $400,000 a year between 2002-03 and 2007-08.

In July 2001, Napa Valley Housing Authority put up 10 four-bed yurts that cost $16,000 each to house farm workers arriving for the harvest. Yurts are round, tentlike structures on platforms with electrical connections, that are covered by vinyl roofs and have cotton fabric walls insulated with foam; they include skylights, solid doors and screened windows. Workers pay $10 a day, including three meals.

The St. Helena Catholic Church provides shelter for up to 60 workers. They receive breakfast and dinner and have access to showers and toilets for $20 a week.

The Home Builders Association of Northern California, in a 1999 suit, challenged a Napa county ordinance that required developers to include 10 percent affordable homes in any new development, or to pay fees into an affordable housing fund. A three-judge Court of Appeal panel upheld a dismissal of the suit, saying that Napa and 70 California cities and counties could require developers to build affordable housing or pay fees. Cities and counties are expected to provide housing for very low income and low-income residents, defined as people or families earning 80 and 50 percent or less of the county's median income, respectively.

Stockton. On May 25, 2000, a federal judge in Sacramento ordered a cleanup at six migrant labor camps in San Joaquin County, calling living conditions for hundreds of farm workers "deplorable." California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) sued JB Farm Labor Contractors and its principals, Jose Bautista and Otilio Bautista, operators of the camps, as well as Victoria Island L.P. and its principal, Grayden E. Nichols, owner of the property on which the camps are located.

The six camps are near Victoria Island Bridge off Highway 4 west of Stockton. The San Joaquin County Division of Environmental Health said that the condition of the camps in May 2000 was "normal wear and tear" after several months of use.

The suit charged JB and Victoria Island with numerous labor law violations. According to the suit, workers were not told the terms of their employment and are intimidated by armed guards on the property. Most of the 500 workers in the camps were unauthorized migrants from Mexico who harvest asparagus from mid-February to late May. One worker reported earning $120 weekly, and having $55 weekly deducted for living in the camp and $10 daily for meals.

Victoria Island terminated its relationship with JB, and in September 2001, agreed to pay $540,000 in back wages and to spend another $260,000 to fix up the labor camps. In a statement, it said: "the settlement reflects the parties' full faith that the high quality asparagus produced by Victoria Island Farms is produced under the best conditions in the industry by workers who are properly paid and housed in accordance with the law."

"Grower Will Pay to Settle Worker Lawsuit ," Los Angeles Times, September 9, 2001.