KING GEORGE (Virginia) JOURNAL-PRESS

December 12, 2007

Migrant housing construction almost complete

By Maria Roe

Sharon Saldarriaga, State Director of Telamon Corporation an organization serving farmworkers and other rurally disadvantaged populations, announced at the Governor’s Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Board meeting recently that the four single farmworker family homes for Ingleside Nurseries in Westmoreland County are nearing completion. One of the units is of strawbale construction, which is part of the sustainable design project Telamon had undertaken in conjunction with Design Corps.

Mrs. Saldarriaga also announced the completion in July of the Parker Farms Farmworker Housing Project. Four duplexes were built to accommodate 48 farmworkers.

The program was designed to incorporate AmeriCorps architectural graduates who would develop the plans for both growers. Originally, the buildings were designed to be strawbale structured, and involved primarily the use of volunteers for the labor. Due to delays caused by weather, lack of volunteers, and few contractors familiar with the strawbale construction, they decided to use conventional construction methods for all but one of the units. Even with the above challenges, Telamon succeeded in providing new, decent housing for 68 farmworkers. All the units but one are constructed with cement block and have a stucco finish. According to Saldarriaga, the design was based on focus groups conducted with farmworkers to determine their housing needs, including room size and other features.

This program was designed to require that a percentage of the cost be paid by the grower. Other funding was provided by HUD, the Department of Housing and Community Development, The Home Depot Foundation, and other private funding sources. The units were conveniently built on the growers’ property to avoid any NIMBY problems such as community opposition.

According to John Hopkins, Vice President of Operations, of Ingleside Nurseries, the construction with strawbale is substantially more expensive than conventional construction, and center block is much more durable, and it is what they need here when the buildings will be used by people who will be renting.

They expect the buildings to be ready for families to move in this January. The buildings are being painted inside as we speak, and they are pouring the outside walkways.

The buildings will be used by four families who have been selected to live there and who have been working for the nursery for a long time. They have not divulged their names yet, but Hopkins said that two of the families who will move in are currently living in the nursery’s existing housing and will move into the new facilities to facilitate and allow for their present living facilities to be renovated.

While Ingleside has not determined the amount to be paid by their tenants, they will be expected to pay a minimal amount of rent to be used to maintain the buildings; they will have to pay the utilities as well. “The amount to be paid will not be excessive,” said Mr. Hopkins. “We did this for two reasons, to provide for as many of the workers as we can, and to keep them coming back if they have a nice place to come to.”

Although the buildings are on Ingleside property and the company provided part of the funding, they are obligated to use them for the purpose of housing migrant workers for a number of years. After that time, the building will revert to Ingleside and they will be able to decide what to do with them.

While the houses will be solely used by families, a family per house, Ingleside has another building that houses single men.

After they see how these facilities work, according to Mr. Hapkins, they will consider whether to have more built.

Telamon plans to expand this program into additional counties and hopes to build farmworker housing on the Eastern Shore and in Scott County in southwest Virginia over the next two years. Existing plans and conventional construction techniques will be used.

Other local growers are currently looking into the process of building housing facilities for their workers as well.