Housing improves for farm workers

BY JULIE O'CONNOR

Star-Ledger Staff

When he needed seasonal workers to pick blueberries or peaches on his Chester Township farm, Kurt Alstede went the legal route.

It cost $10,000 and up to a year to obtain the necessary local approval for the housing Alstede needed for his federally approved guest workers from countries like Mexico and Costa Rica.

As North Jersey farmers turn to more labor-intensive production methods to harvest crops year-round, they need more seasonal workers than are available locally.

Chester has found a way to better oversee and streamline housing applications and make the process less costly for farmers. Though some South Jersey communities already have addressed the issue, Chester is among the first in North Jersey to seek greater oversight of farm labor housing, said Frank Pinto, Morris County's preservation director.

Chester's ordinance, passed in May, permits worker housing to be built without a variance and lays out some structural and aesthetic standards. Township officials say it also lets them know where the farm laborers live in their community.

Not all towns need such an ordinance. Many farmers prefer to hire day laborers who don't require on-farm housing or the $9.70-an-hour salary mandated for guest workers by the U.S. Department of Labor. And some, like Washington Township, say their farmers haven't had a problem building worker housing, since the community is especially permissive.

Others call Chester's law proactive, saying towns across the state often shy away from the issue of farm labor housing because of controversies over immigration and housing conditions.

Formalizing the building process is a "strong signal" that a community is accepting of guest workers, unlike a town "where it's just ignored," said Dave Glatfelter, a housing developer for Rural Opportunities who helps farmers plan housing. It also makes it easier for farmers to get federal loans for their worker housing, he said.

"It's better to have it official, regulated," Glatfelter said. "In the old days, labor housing was never really up to code."

Statewide, 11 federal investigators inspect farm housing to "ensure basic human needs" for workers are being met, like providing a sufficient living space, sanitation facilities and running water, said John Kelly, assistant director of the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

Farm worker housing ranges from dormitories -- mostly in South Jersey -- to private homes, motel rooms or trailers. If a farmer has a large house and few workers, they might all live under the same roof.

As long as a town's requirements are equal to or stricter than the state's, Kelly said he'd "certainly encourage" local regulation of worker housing, since it could make the state's job of oversight easier.

Oscar Gomez, who educates farm workers on field sanitation, said he's noticed a general improvement in worker housing conditions over the years, which he attributes to increased fear of crackdowns. In the worst cases, he's found workers living inside greenhouses or in basements. In the best, they have bunk beds, a large kitchen -- or, rarely, separate bathrooms and even a television with DVD player.

While farm worker advocates caution that immigrants living on a farm have no long-term rights, are under heavy pressure not to complain and place their entire lives in the hands of the employer, some argue building new housing can help -- since workers otherwise could end up sleeping in vans.

There may be more need for such housing in the future. More worried farmers have been turning to the guest worker program, experts say, thanks to greater demand for seasonal labor they can't find locally and the government's increased enforcement against undocumented immigrants since Sept. 11.

Last year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued more than 50,700 visas to agricultural guest workers, compared with about 37,000 the year before and 29,800 five years ago.

Alstede, the farmer from Chester Township, employs about 16 seasonal workers, mostly from Mexico, Costa Rica or Colombia. About six live in an apartment above his farmer's market; the rest live in two nearby homes he owns.

"Here, we have established workers that come in on visas, stay on the farm, become a part of society," Alstede said. "It's very clean and efficient -- there's no hanging out on street corners."

Years ago, in order to house his workers in a pre-existing building, he had to hire an attorney, planner and engineer, pay a $750 fee for a variance and wait up to a year for planning board approval.

"There's a hundred different ways we could have invested that $10,000 in our farm business," he said.

Picking crops on Alstede's farm is tougher than Manuel Bautista Contreras' previous job in construction. But since Contreras, 34, doesn't have to pay for living expenses like rent or gas, he's able to send more of his earnings back to his wife and two children in Mexico.

"A single person can have fun," he said in Spanish, "but if you have a family, you have to send money home every 15 days -- you have to use your money for food, clothing."

While costly, Alstede says having guest workers live on his farm gives him peace of mind because the workers return year after year and know their jobs well.

"We never have to worry about these raids you hear about on the news," he said, "because we're completely legal and on the up and up -- it's nice to go to bed at night and never have to worry."