THE PACKER

December 13, 2004

PROGRAMS TRY TO ENSURE HOUSING FOR WORKERS

By Bob McClure, Eastern Editor

PALMETTO, Fla. --- One of the first questions Florida tomato growers were concerned with after damage from a series of summer hurricanes was labor.

If and when their crops were in a position to be harvested, who would do the work?

After Hurricane Charley swept through the small Florida towns of Wauchula and Arcadia in mid-August, most of the region’s citrus was blown off the trees, and housing for migrant farmworkers was destroyed.

Other farmworkers that were planning to work in the area decided not to show up.  Those that did got better paying jobs with the Federal Emergency Management Agency helping to clean up the area.

“There were spotty shortages when we began due to housing that was devastated in Wauchula and Arcadia,” said Tony DiMare, vice president of DiMare Ruskin, Inc., Ruskin.  “A lot of people that came here had no housing in place.  It’s a short-term problem, but the spring will be a challenge if we have any shortage of labor.”

Florida growers generally harvest their largest tomato crop in the spring deal.

Jay Taylor, president of Taylor & Fulton Inc., isn’t faced with a shortage because his company provides housing for farmworkers, which acts as a major perk.

“We aren’t really a good barometer because we have our own labor,” Taylor said.  “But I’ve heard some of the crop in Immokalee is competing with government (cleanup) jobs.”

Taylor is a member of the board of directors of the Florida Housing Finance Corp., a state agency that helps finance affordable housing.  The organization recently allocated $1.5 million in disaster relief funding for the construction of a 104-unit farmworker housing project in Fort Pierce.

The property is being developed by the Everglades Community Association, a nonprofit affordable housing development company.  It will consist of one- and two-story walkup garden apartments, including 40 three-bedroom, two-bath units and 16 four-bedroom, two-bath units.

In another development, the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association’s Research and Education Foundation is donating $50,000 from its Hurricane Farmworker Relief program to Catholic Charities Housing, Inc., Venice, for initial funding of Casa San Juan Bosco, a farmworker housing initiative in Arcadia.  The project will offer affordable housing for farmworkers and their families, and a variety of support services.