Farmworker housing conditions, public health and social justice: Whither the connections

The health and well-being of hired farm workers is threatened by hazardous working and living conditions. In addition to on-the-job exposures to health risks, many workers live in dangerous, sub-standard housing. Exposure to the elements, unsafe gas and electrical service, structural defects, overflowing septic systems, pest infestations, and crowded conditions present multiple risks to health and well-being. New research shows a substantial decline of employer-provided labor camps, leaving most workers to seek private market housing. Some workers reside in makeshift dwellings not intended for human habitation. A recent study of farm labor housing needs in two California counties (Napa in 2006 and Mendocino in 2007) included interviews with 258 randomly selected farm employers (growers, farm labor contractors and vineyard management companies), and 394 farm laborers. Overcrowding and the sharing of modest dwellings with unrelated persons was commonplace. Many workers reported enduring crowded living conditions in order to maximize remittances to family members in their home country. But this research, like most studies of farm labor housing and of housing-related exposures to health risks, did not evaluate the health status of individual workers. Similarly, most studies of the health of farm laborers do not assess housing-related exposures. A group of farmworker advocates, researchers, and practitioners met in Fall 2008 to address this gap in the literature and establish a research agenda to identify the extent of sub-standard conditions and inform policy to improve farmworker housing by requiring and enforcing decent conditions informed by public health standards.