Town Pulls In Welcome Mat for Farm Workers : Florida: Officials ban group housing even though residents concede that migrant laborers are vital to the local economy. Critics accuse the city of discrimination.

Come sunup, migrants work the vast fields of citrus, flowers and vegetables in the fertile Florida heartland. Come sundown, they are not welcome in this small town.

Within four days and without dissent, the town council passed an emergency ordinance that bans group housing for migrant labor inside the town’s one-square-mile limits.

The intent of the ordinance is to control density and preserve “family-type living” in the town of 1,000--not to banish itinerant workers, said Mayor Dixie Scott. Not everyone believes that.

The law is being challenged in court as unconstitutional by Jerry Whitaker, a group home operator who contends that the hurried council action discriminates against Mexicans, denies them equal protection and violates state law.

“People don’t know where their bread is buttered by trying to knock off the camps,” said Dick McLaughlin, a Lake Placid resident.

Another resident, Joyce Wright, agreed. “They’re the only people coming here to do this work,” she said. “If they don’t have a place to live, they’ll go elsewhere.”

At the heart of the controversy is Whitaker’s two-story, pastel-colored group home, which opened last year in what used to be a heavy construction yard. He charges $25 a week to seasonal workers, the largely Mexican group of laborers who migrate up the Eastern seaboard each year following the crops at harvest time.

Whitaker said fewer than 20 live in the building’s three apartments, although the state has approved it for 33.

No matter what the number, it is too many under the new law, which prohibits all “migrant-labor camps”--defined in state law as five or more unrelated laborers living together temporarily.

“What Mr. Whitaker is trying to do is put a large number of people into a small place,” said council member Dal Hall. “This affects density, infrastructure and family-style living. It’s not the normal family--mother, father and children--living together.

“They’ve tried to throw in a racial issue, but they’re wrong. It’s not an issue of prejudice.”

Whitaker disagrees: “It’s nothing but prejudice.”

Local officials say they do not object to farm worker families who live in Lake Placid and point to crew chiefs who can afford to own homes. They readily acknowledge that the economy depends on seasonal workers who come to the central Florida town, 70 miles east of St. Petersburg.

“This whole community would fold if we didn’t have migrants picking our fruit and working in our fields--doing the work other people wouldn’t do,” said Scott.

Although the workers need a place to live, Scott does not think that that necessarily has to be in the city. “Why ask for trouble? High-density housing taxes your facilities.”

Juan Acevedo, 21, works the groves. “We come for work. If they make us get out, we have nowhere to go. And if we don’t pick, who would?” he said.

“We couldn’t survive,” said his wife, Pernella, holding 5-month-old Carmen. “If there’s no place to stay, people would have to live in the woods, in cars or ditches.”

State law requires a license for any housing unit occupied by five or more adult transient farm workers. Such migrant labor camps have sprung up in recent years as many growers closed their own temporary housing in the face of a state crackdown on substandard housing.

Whitaker had been operating the house for about six months. During that time, he passed health and fire inspections. He was waiting for a state permit when the town council enacted the ban.

The house remains open while Whitaker’s suit is in the courts. Hall said he is uncertain what the city’s next move will be.

Whitaker’s suit alleges that the ordinance was directed against him and that is why it was rushed through so hastily.

Scott agreed that the ordinance was passed on an emergency basis because “we knew he was pursuing this hot and heavy” to get a license. Scott said that if the courts allow Whitaker’s house to remain open because of the hasty way in which the law was passed, he hopes that the ordinance will bar the establishment of future camps.

The law is based on a similar ordinance in nearby Sebring. Palmetto also has a ban. Michael Rider, Lake Placid town attorney, said that an Arcadia attorney has called to inquire about the law because there is interest in a similar ban there.