Cargo Containers Are Considered to House Migrant Farm Workers

On a bright winter day, a chill wind blows litter down the few blocks they call Main Street.

No one is picnicking in Hund Park. The migrant-services building is closed. The employment center is locked.

It’s hard to imagine that in just a few months, the population of this 2,300-person town will more than double and the streets will be jammed with migrant workers desperate for places to cook, shower and sleep.

Hundreds will wind up sleeping under makeshift plastic shelters along the nearby Columbia River, or in their cars, or--as happened one year--in the crawl space of a local home, whose enterprising owner rented sleeping spots for $50 a week until state health officials put a stop to it.

“It gets real crowded. There are people everywhere,” says Amalia Garcia, a Toppenish woman who owns Nancy’s Boutique--named for her daughter--in the Mattawa Business Complex, a big name for a structure that has only Nancy’s for a tenant.

Down the hill from Nancy’s, the post office, two gas stations and the grocery store, there is a hint of the season to come. Although snow still ices the brown hills surrounding Mattawa, crews bundled up against the cold can be seen on ladders pruning cherry trees in orchards along the Columbia.

This town, deep in the heart of Washington’s irrigated fruit and wine country, offers a stark example of the state’s chronic shortage of farm-worker housing--a crisis that ebbs and flows with the harvests of cherries, apples and grapes, and a crisis lawmakers are grappling with again this year.

State government used to say “ ‘Shucks, ain’t it awful,’ and then dropped the subject,” says Sen. Margarita Prentice (D-Seattle).

Now the Legislature and Gov. Gary Locke are pursuing what they consider a reasoned, long-term attempt to address the problem, a process begun in earnest last year, she says.

“I wish I had a fairy godmother to wave a wand and make it all perfect,” says Prentice, herself a child of migrant workers.

“But we’ve learned that can’t happen, and trying to do it all at once only discourages people and gives everybody an excuse to quit.”

A 1996 study by the state Department of Health estimated that 37,700 of the state’s 62,300 migrant farm workers, about 60%, work without shelter. The total includes workers who come and go from Latin America and those who live here year-round.

In Mattawa, many homeless workers settle in degrading squalor on the riverbank, in shantytowns without potable water or toilets. Most are young men, but there often are women and children too.

Among workers with housing, more than half live in overcrowded conditions with families doubling or tripling up so they can afford the rent, the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development said in a recent report.

There is no rent control to curb costs. Landlords charge what the market will bear, state officials say.

“The housing here cannot keep up with demand,” says Mayor Judy Esser, now in her second term. “It’s nothing to have 20 people in a single-wide trailer.”

Last year, the Legislature appropriated nearly $2 million for farm-worker housing in Mattawa and Horn Rapids Park, both in Grant County; in Brewster, Okanagan County; and in Manson, Chelan County.

Converting Shipping Boxes Into Shelter

In Mattawa, the county housing authority is coordinating a $323,000 project to use big shipping containers--the type seen stacked up on the docks in Seattle--to create bunkhouses. The steel containers will be outfitted with plumbing, air conditioning and heating systems.

Housing authority director Ken Palek is negotiating for about 20 acres to set up two dozen containers, along with support units for extra bathrooms and laundry facilities.

This is no page out of the hobo handbook--the interiors will be finished nicely, he says.

“This is an initial project. What we want to do is see how well things work and then make refinements accordingly,” Palek says.

The goal is to have the containers ready for cherry season, which begins in June.

The debate over farm-worker housing has been one of the most contentious in the state. Farm labor is among the lowest-paying jobs, bringing in an average $11,790 a year, almost $5,000 below federal poverty level for a family of four.

Last year, the Legislature took a big and politically difficult step to produce more temporary housing, passing a law to ease building codes for seasonal housing built by farmers. Locke signed the measure after vetoing it the previous year at the urging of the United Farm Workers union, whose officials argued that migrant workers deserve better.

Locke was convinced by farm-country lawmakers that farmers generally could not afford to build and maintain shelters that met standard building code, and as an alternative would provide no housing at all. Indeed, he agreed, that appeared to be exactly what was happening.

This year, Locke is asking for an $8-million down payment on a $40-million, 10-year plan to begin construction of permanent low-income housing--subsidized and managed by the state--for seasonal farm workers who live in Washington year-round, as well as community-based housing for migrants.

The state previously estimated it would take a $252-million investment to provide adequate housing for farm workers, but Locke and key lawmakers have concluded no Legislature would agree to such a huge investment.

They consider this plan far more realistic.

“It’s a good start, but at that rate it will take 120 years to satisfy current needs,” says Erik Noel Nelsen, a researcher for the United Farm Workers in Sunnyside.

Prentice believes there’s a fair chance lawmakers will approve the $8-million appropriation this year, though she notes that some Republicans are talking about holding off for more study.

“How many times do they have to go down to the river and look at the people living there before they figure it out?” Nelsen asked.

The state also will allow some in-orchard tent camping again this year to ease the housing shortage. Safety and health rules being written now will require growers to provide certain amenities--electricity, potable water, camp stoves, refrigerators, showers and toilets--to get a state license for such accommodations.

Another measure under consideration this year would improve enforcement of health and safety standards by giving the Department of Health sole authority and the money to do it. Enforcement responsibility now is split between the Health Department and the state Department of Labor and Industries.