North Carolina Farmworker Housing Fails to Meet OSHA and HUD Standards

Substandard housing conditions persist in farmworker temporary labor camps despite federal housing regulations. Rental housing in which farmworkers live also tends to be substandard. The supply and quality of private market housing available to farmworkers is insufficient and largely unregulated. Exposure to substandard housing conditions has been shown in other populations to be associated with health problems including asthma, depression and anxiety, and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B, respiratory infections, and food borne illnesses.

Measures from two surveys of farmworkers, one of 288 workers in 44 residential sites in 2007 and the other of 122 of the same workers in 29 residential sites in 2008 are used to document the prevalence and predictors of substandard housing conditions in farmworker housing in eastern North Carolina. Measures used in this analysis include housing tenure, crowding, sanitary facilities, and structural hazards. Associations between housing conditions and resident report of wheeze, nausea and vomiting, and symptoms of depression and anxiety are also explored. The results display a need for improved enforcement of temporary labor camp regulations and efforts to improve the quality of all types of housing available to farmworkers.