Traditional Bunkhouse Goes Portable : Farm-Worker Housing Idea Hits Home

With the passing of amnesty legislation, many migrant farm workers have left the fields for better pay in service and construction work. Consequently, farm managers feel threatened by a labor shortage and are providing incentives, including housing, to keep and lure laborers.

Providing permanent shelter can be an expensive proposition for farmers, and many are looking for less costly alternatives. Temporary Quarters, a San Diego-based manufacturer of portable bunkhouses, believes it has a product that will interest farm owners.

“With perishable crops that they have to get to the market, farmers are in serious trouble if there’s a shortage of workers,” said Eli Borunda, the company’s founder and general manager. “Those workers are going to go where the conditions are best. That’s where we come in. By providing them with good shelter, by treating them with a little respect, not only will you be able to attract workers, but the ones that you have will be a little bit more rested, more productive.”

Demand Is Increasing

Borunda and Kathy Faulkner, co-founder and vice president, last December began to build portable bunkhouses. Their units, which sell for $16,400, house seven workers. Temporary Quarters’ three models, each of which has 400 square feet of living space, generally are equipped with showers, stoves and commodes.

Dealers who have purchased Temporary Quarters’ bunkhouses say demand for the product is increasing.

“The talk around here is that there will be a labor shortage,” said Terry Fischer, owner of West Cal Tractor, a farm dealership in Santa Rosa. “And, if that happens, this is something they believe they will have to do.”

Agricultural industry observers believe that legislators soon will force farmers to provide adequate housing for their workers.

“I think (farmers/growers) ought to be responsible for providing housing, but at the same time, I don’t think they should have to bear 100% of the cost,” said Jeffrey Huckins,assistant general manager at Woodland Tractor & Equipment Co. in Woodland. “Temporary Quarters has come up with a solution that’s beneficial to both the grower and the worker.”

Borunda said his shelters are cheaper than mobile homes and advises farmers to charge workers nominal rent to finance the cost of the bunkhouse.

For example, by charging $5 a day for a worker who occupies the shelter for five months, or $2 daily for an individual who stays year-round, Borunda said, “you can cover the cost of the bunkhouse after five years.” And, since the unit should last about 15 years with proper maintenance, he added, “you’ll have another 10 yearc left where you can actually make money on it.”

Although demand for such housing appears to be growing, Borunda conceded that “it might be difficult to get (farm owners) to buy something that they didn’t have to buy before.” Borunda, however, added: “Most farmers who are in it for the long haul will see that this is the way to do business.

‘Want Decent Housing’

Advocacy groups such as the the California Rural Legal Assistance, however, are concerned about widespread use of portable housing units.

“We want decent housing, but we’re not sure if portable trailers are the solution,” said Mark Brown, a CRLA spokesman. Brown said he has concerns that growers could violate occupancy levels by housing more workers in the units than they are capable of holding. Besides, even if the bunkhouses meet housing standards, Brown questions housing workers for long periods in such units.

Although Borunda and Faulkner created the bunkhouse for the farm equipment niche, the two have discovered that there is a far broader marketplace for this kind of housing.

For example, government agencies are exploring the possibility of using the bunkhouse as homeless shelters. And, south of the border, maquiladora industries may use the units as dormitories to house workers near manufacturing plants.

Borunda has even received inquiries from ski resorts considering using the company’s shelters to house their employees.

“Most ski resort towns are so expensive to live in that a lot of their employees can’t afford housing costs,” Borunda said. “Some resorts actually have mobile park homes for their workers. I guess they’re thinking of using our units as an alternative.”

The self-contained units meet standards established by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and California’s Employee Housing Act, both of which are enforced by the state Department of Housing.

So far, Temporary Quarters has been aggressively marketing its product in Northern California, where seasonal workers are found in greater concentration. Agricultural officials say more than 350,000 seasonal workers stream into the state.

Rather than pitch the unit as a housing product, Temporary Quarters is marketing the bunkhouse as a “farm tool.”

“Just like someone can go in and buy a tractor (at farm equipment outlets) we want them to be able to go in and buy our bunkhouse,” Borunda said. “The way we see it, it’s just another farm tool.”

Since receiving its dealership license in June, Temporary Quarters has been busy setting up a dealer network. Thus far, the company has sold about a dozen units, mostly to tractor dealers. Among its clients are dealers such as: West Cal Tractor in Santa Rosa, Glenn Tractor in Willows, Woodland Tractor & Equipment in Woodland, and Dupar & Angel in Sonoma and Lake counties.

Advertising Campaign

Temporary Quarters is planning TV and radio advertising campaigns and also intends to exhibit its bunkhouses at agricultural trade shows and fairs, including next year’s Del Mar Fair.

The light-gray bunkhouses are constructed out of Masonite, (a wood product) and have composition shingle cathedral ceilings--”so it doesn’t look too box-like,” Borunda said. Each bunkhouse is covered with vinyl asphalt tile and has 40-square-feet of window space.

Temporary Quarters’ mobile bunkhouse measures 12 feet wide, 33 1/3 feet long and 14 feet tall. The company manufactures three models: a seven-man bunkhouse with a stove, one commode and one shower ($16,400); a seven-man bunkhouse without a stove, two commodes and one shower ($15,500); and a two-bedroom family model with two commodes and one shower ($16,900).

The company has contracted with four manufacturing plants in Rancho Cordova (near Sacramento), San Bernardino, Perris and Moreno Valley to build the bunkhouses. According to Borunda, each plant can produce 25 to 35 units per month.

Borunda and Faulkner started the venture shortly after watching a news program that depicted the plight of migrant workers sleeping in the canyons of North County.