Ventura County Is in a Quandary Over Farm Worker Housing

Many of Ventura County’s farm workers live in dwellings that are overcrowded and lack hot water, toilets, sinks or adequate heating, a new study shows.

In addition, field laborers and their families are forced to double and even triple up just to pay the monthly rent, considering the county’s costly housing market, a county study says.

With strict limits on where growth can occur, policymakers must decide where and how to build affordable farm housing so that agriculture can remain a viable industry, the report concludes.

“This just validates what everyone who is close to the business knows,” said Barbara Macri-Ortiz, an Oxnard lawyer and labor advocate. “These workers are not housed properly and live in conditions most people would abhor. For agriculture to be successful, housing has to be part of the equation.”

The report--prepared by county staff working with a citizen advisory group--is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Supervisors today. Board members are expected to receive the study and give staff direction on additional steps needed to address the housing crunch.

Seasonal laborers who harvest California’s crops have long been relegated to bunkhouses, shacks and other dilapidated dwellings. But over the last two decades, these workers increasingly have become permanent residents, bringing families with them.

Housing to shelter them has not kept pace. University of California studies estimate that the housing shortage for farm workers has grown to nearly 100,000 units statewide. California licenses 1,240 private labor camps, which provide housing for single workers, but even those are becoming scarce.

The state also provides grants for local governments to build farm worker housing. It has invested about $70 million on projects in the last four years, said Judy Nevis, chief deputy director of the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

“That’s going to start to make a difference,” she said.

Counties have dealt with the problem in a piecemeal fashion. In Napa Valley’s grape-growing region, however, one innovative program is underway.

Construction is to begin this month on a 60-bed farm worker housing facility. Growers voted to tax themselves to generate funds, and several Napa companies added additional money. The facility will be located on eight acres of donated land on the Silverado Trail near St. Helena. It is expected to be completed in time for the 2003 grape harvest.

In 1999, a private foundation gave $31 million to build housing and health-care facilities for workers in the Central Valley. The money was believed to be the largest award of its kind to assist farm workers.

In Ventura County, the state’s 10th-largest agricultural region, an estimated 20,000 farm workers pick lemons, strawberries and broccoli each year. Some farm worker housing has been constructed in recent years, and more is planned.

Oxnard has two new apartment-style projects in the works, adding about 75 units to accommodate families. Another proposal is working its way through Santa Paula’s planning process. Although no one is sure how many new housing units are needed locally, officials estimate that hundreds more must be built to begin to make a dent.

The county Board of Supervisors last year asked for the survey to ask agricultural workers about income, the number of people who live in their homes, and living conditions. Although the poll was not scientific, the county received about 1,516 completed questionnaires of the 9,000 distributed.

The responses provide a credible “snapshot” of how laborers are getting by, said several members of a citizens advisory group that helped with the survey.

“Our farm workers are essentially invisible. We don’t see how they are living,” said Ellen Brokaw, a committee member who farms avocados and exotic plants. “We as farmers know how important they are to us. But those who aren’t farmers, and who voted for the restrictions imposed by SOAR [growth-control initiatives], don’t know the essential immorality of not providing them a place to live.”

According to the study, about 70% of the respondents earn a median income of $11,760, qualifying them as “extremely low income” by federal standards. By contrast, the median income for all Ventura County residents is $59,000.

Forty-one percent of survey respondents reported living in dwellings that are overcrowded, 22% said they lack adequate heating and 7% have no bathroom facilities.

Even if supervisors agree on the need for more housing, two big questions would remain: Who will pay for it, and where will it be built?

Committee members say solutions are available if the county and cities cooperate. Federal grants for farm worker housing can be tapped, said Supervisor John K. Flynn, who met with housing officials during a visit to Washington, D.C., last week.

But the county can’t do it alone, he said. The study pointed out that 92% of respondents live within one of Ventura County’s 10 cities.

“Oxnard has always been very good on this issue,” said Flynn, whose 5th District is based in Oxnard. “But some of the other cities need to examine the morality of some of their positions. I think they will step up to the plate though.”

The study identifies 204 parcels of land that could be used to build housing. They are scattered across the county, except in the cities of Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Port Hueneme.

Those cities were excluded because they do not have enough irrigated farmland nearby, a condition for identifying a potential site, committee members said.

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Times staff writer Fred Alvarez contributed to this report.