Low Wages Resulted in Crowded Home

* This is in response to the “Why Have Children You Can’t Support?” letters to the editor of June 3. We understand the point of view that you should not have more children than you can care for appropriately. But we also think a larger point needs to be made in regard to the Carranza family, where 43 people were living in one house: Why are wages so low and affordable housing so scarce that people working full-time jobs cannot afford adequate housing?

The average farm worker salary in Ventura County is about $7,500 per year. Yet the overwhelming majority of farm workers do without social services, even when eligible. According to Don Villarejo of the Institute for Rural Studies, a survey funded by the U.S. Department of Labor showed that less than 2% of California farm workers live in households where anyone receives Aid for Families with Dependent Children--also known as welfare. Food stamps are the most utilized government benefit, with only 11% of California farm workers living in a household where anyone has food stamps.

If it is true, as one letter writer speculated, that the children were “delivered courtesy of Ventura County,” isn’t this just one more example of government providing services to farm workers that the agricultural industry should provide?

BOB and PATTY KNIGHT

Oxnard