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Migrants need homes

For too long, many Florida farmers have reaped huge profits by shortchanging their field hands. Besides paying low wages, many farmers cut corners by forcing their workers to find affordable housing on their own, charging too much for substandard company-owned buildings or relying on the largesse of government and charitable organizations.

Recent events, however, are forcing farmers to rethink housing. Many migrants, seeking more money for affordable housing, are leaving agriculture for higher-paying jobs in construction. A series of hurricanes has destroyed or seriously harmed many migrant housing units throughout the state. And because of new immigration laws and crackdowns on illegal workers, laborers who otherwise would have been available are not showing up for work, which has left the industry with a shortage of workers that increases by the day.

Because of new regulations, migrants who want to work legally must apply for guest worker visas, and farmers now are legally bound to provide housing for these workers. Many farmers are crying foul because building decent housing will lower their profit margins. Indeed, a prototype of a farm worker housing development unveiled recently in Balm shows great promise, but farmers are complaining that the $100 per square foot to build each unit is too expensive.

The hard reality is that Florida needs farm workers, and the workers need decent, affordable housing. Individual farmers will have difficulty replicating the project in Balm, but if the industry forms a consortium and follows the creative example of Catholic Charities Housing of Venice, they might be able to solve their problem. On 86 acres in Arcadia, Catholic Charities is building 125 single-family homes, complete with modern amenities. The price tag is $21-million, financed with private funds, loans and grants.

Florida's agribusiness needs to stop finding ways to avoid paying for farm worker housing and commit itself to developing innovative ways to do the right thing while maintaining its profit margin. Affordable housing will help determine the future of agriculture in our state.

[Last modified January 9, 2007, 07:02:19]