Ventura County Focuses on Housing Its Farm Workers

With a lack of low-cost housing forcing a growing number of Ventura County farm workers to live out of cars and garages, a coalition of growers, labor advocates and elected leaders has launched a campaign to shelter those who supply the muscle for the county’s $1-billion farm industry.

Skyrocketing housing prices and soaring rents are making it tougher than ever for agricultural workers to find affordable places to live, housing advocates say.

But in what many are calling an unprecedented spirit of cooperation, a push is on to counter that trend. At least three committees are studying the issue, looking at everything from current housing conditions to potential land-use strategies.

And county planners are sifting through the results of a comprehensive survey to determine farm-worker housing needs, a key component of efforts to generate the money and support necessary to build the first significant block of farm-worker housing in the county in nearly a decade.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful, and we’ve got to provide the political will to solve this problem,” said Supervisor John Flynn, who is among those leading the charge. “There is a huge need, and the timing seems to be excellent to do something about it.”

Those efforts could receive a boost this fall, when California voters weigh in on a $2.1-billion housing bond that would funnel $200 million into the state’s primary farm-worker housing grant program.

If approved, the money would become available at a time of increased attention to rural housing conditions.

That interest has been spurred in part by a growing belief that in order to keep farmers in business--which Ventura County voters have said they want to do through the adoption of farmland preservation measures--steps must be taken to house those who work the harvest.

In fact, one policy group reported last year that farm-worker housing was in such dwindling supply that it threatens the stability of the county’s oldest and most prominent industry.

“Since this community has voted to preserve agriculture, I think there is a community obligation to make sure we are taking care of that segment of the community that makes farming possible,” said Rob Roy, general counsel for the Ventura County Agricultural Assn.

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Local Housing Costs Hit an All-Time High

Ventura County’s red-hot housing market has been tough on workers in all sectors.

Schoolteachers, biotech workers and corporate professionals all have felt the squeeze of a housing market in which apartment vacancies now stand at 2% and the price of a typical home is at an all-time high of $312,000.

But the housing crunch has been especially hard on low-wage workers. And wages don’t get much lower than those earned by farm workers, who by some estimates make on average less than $14,000 a year picking strawberries and plucking lemons.

“It’s almost impossible to survive on what we earn,” said Marciano Guzman, 28, a seasonal strawberry picker who pays $450 a month to rent two rooms for himself, his wife and two children in a trailer in south Oxnard.

Such sentiments are not unique to Ventura County.

In agricultural outposts across the state, from cardboard shantytowns near San Diego to open-air encampments in the San Joaquin Valley, farm workers tell of living in slum conditions.

Ventura County’s farm-worker housing survey, conducted by a committee formed after supervisors highlighted the issue last year, documented laborers living in cars, converted garages and cramped apartments shared by two and three families.

More than 1,500 farm workers filled out the questionnaire. The committee--made up of farmers, labor advocates and county planners--is expected later this month to review the results and by this summer to recommend ways to help meet identified housing needs.

Fueled by an infusion of cash into California’s farm-worker housing grant program in recent years, there is now more activity than ever on the farm-worker housing front, state officials say.

Established in 1977, the state farm-worker housing fund only was receiving $1 million to $2 million a year up until 1999. But starting in fiscal 1999-2000, serious money started flowing into the fund, including a $40-million allocation for fiscal 2000-01.

About $80 million has been earmarked for the program since 1999, said Judy Nevis, chief deputy director of the state housing department.

That money is expected to help build nearly 4,000 rental units and single-family homes for farm workers statewide in coming years, Nevis said.

The housing bond measure, if approved, could add an additional $30 million a year over the next six years. That money would help produce between 6,800 and 8,500 farm-worker housing units.

Even with increased funding, however, it isn’t going to be easy--especially in slow-growth Ventura County.

Housing advocates and others say to turn the talk into reality, it will require residents to think differently about such issues as where housing should be built and how many units should be allowed.