Dormitories for Migrant Farm Workers on Ballot
Napa Valley voters are being asked to approve dormitories for hundreds of migrant farm workers who have been sleeping in cars or under the stars for years.
Measure L, as the Tuesday ballot proposal is called, would authorize five new housing camps and 300 new beds. That would nearly triple the valley’s supply of government-regulated accommodations and ensure a pool of cheap and available labor for vineyard owners.
“There is a demand for beds,” said Angel Sanchez Ortega, 38, who makes about $400 a week picking grapes and shares a room with two other men. “Build more camps. A lot of people need it.”
The problem is most acute during the fall harvest, when hundreds of workers come from Mexico to find jobs.
Measure L would permit the new camps for single men who can show they work at the vineyards and have immigration papers. They would have to pay $10 a day.
If the measure passes, groundbreaking at one site would take place in April on seven acres donated by Joseph Phelps Vineyards.
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