Williams, CA (MPG) – Colusa County officials say a bill headed to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk that would allow migrant farm workers to live year-round in the 100-unit Migrant
Housing Center in Williams could place financial hardship on the local community and California taxpayers.
Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, introduced his farmworker housing bill earlier this year to ensure migrant families will not be forced to leave what has long been temporary housing centers of the State Office of Migrant Services, which were established to bring farm labor to areas during high demand from out of the state or country as needed to plant and harvest crops.
AB 2440 seeks to make these units available to migrants for year-round occupancy by 2031 to ensure farm workers have access to affordable and permanent places to live so that the education of their children is not disrupted by moving out.
Colusa County Chief Executive Officer Wendy Tyler and Colusa County Agricultural Commissioner Anastasia Allen said the proposal would create significant challenges for the county because there would not be sufficient “off season” employment, adding to Colusa County already high unemployment rates during the winter months.
“While we are sympathetic to the needs of the broader farmworker community and the academic needs of their children, we are equally sympathetic to the needs of our agriculture community, which drives the economy of Colusa County,” Tyler said, in an Aug. 20 letter to Arambula, which the Board of Supervisors authorized the same day.
The Williams Migrant Farm Housing Center, operated by Colusa County, is occupied about six months out of the year, starting in April when the local farms need a surge of labor for planting and harvesting local crops – a $900 million industry – particularly tomatoes, one of the county’s leading crops.
“The bill seeks to remove ‘migratory’ to migrant farm housing, which causes a whole lot of other issues,” Allen said. “The way our season works, in October, our crops are done, and they (migrants) go home,” Allen said. “Home, for the majority of them are out of state, out of country…they are not homeless.”
Allen said county’s counsel also has concerns that converting temporary housing to permanent housing would impact the visa status of many migrants, who have been vetted and allowed to enter the country legally to work. Under existing law, migrant farm labor centers typically operate 180 days, and, under some conditions, not to exceed 275 days in any calendar year.
Allen said many of those housed at the Williams center choose to migrate between home and seasonal work each
year, and the county has a 98% return rate with another 20 families on the waiting list, raising alarm for some who
fear leaving their housing for home would result in non-migratory workers scooping up permanent residences if the
state converts them to year-round housing.
“Our tenants are concerned that they will leave to go home, like they have for generations, and when they come
back in the spring, their house isn’t going to be available because, meanwhile, somebody else moved in that wants to
stay here year-round.”
County officials said making the units available year-round will also come with a big price tag for taxpayers and
make it impossible for the county to keep up with maintenance, including cleaning and painting.
“If units are occupied year-round, it will be virtually impossible for staff to keep up with the daily needs of tenants,
as well as perform necessary annual upkeep,” Tyler said.
The Williams Migrant Center is one of 24 migrant centers in California operated by counties with costs reimbursed
by the state. The bill would prohibit rent from exceeding the average daily per unit operating cost, which is currently
lower than traditional low-income housing, and includes all utilities.
Although advocacy organizations, such as the Center on Race, Immigration, and Social Justice, support the bill,
which was last amended on Aug. 23, migrant workers up and down the state opposed it at a committee hearing,
officials said.
“The migrant workers are not in favor of this because they are truly migrant workers,” Allen said.
County officials said year-round farm labor housing would only make sense in areas of the state with year-round
agriculture work, but it does not make sense for Colusa County that does not have year-round agriculture jobs
available.
There is also concern that if housing is subject only to employment verification when workers move in, the county
would not be able to determine when residents are no longer involved in agriculture, thus ineligible for the housing.