Othello opens worker housing

By Kristi Pihl, Herald staff writer

Seasonal farmworkers have a new "safe place" to stay while working in the Othello area.

The Othello Housing Authority has opened a 96-bed housing project, Lugar Seguro, a Spanish phrase that means safe place.

Alan Hanks, housing authority executive director, said the $3.5 million project is the organization's first for seasonal farmworkers. It already has housing where farmworker families live year-round.

But Hanks said after he visited illegal labor camps with the state Department of Health several years ago, he realized how badly safe housing was needed for seasonal labor.

"They were just terrible places to be," he said.

The grand opening for Lugar Seguro is at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at 624 Seguro Lane in Othello.

Thousands of seasonal farmworkers in the area lack a place to live, Hanks said.

The new housing is "just a drop in the bucket," he said.

The housing authority owns enough property adjacent to Lugar Seguro for a second phase, Hanks said. He anticipates the authority will start planning and searching for funding in the next year.

Construction for Lugar Seguro started in April 2009. The housing authority acted as its own contractor and hired local subcontractors to complete the actual construction, Hanks said.

The authority paid for the complex with a $3 million grant and a $500,000 loan from the state Department of Commerce and a $250,000 loan from the Bank of Whitman, Hanks said.

The cost came in significantly under budget. Hanks said the housing authority had anticipated spending $4.5 million, but the total cost was about $1 million less because of the good prices the housing authority received.

Lugar Seguro already had 15 farmworkers living there early this week, Hanks said. The complex of duplexes and triplexes is designed for single farmworkers, but can accommodate some families.

The two- and three-bedroom units are furnished with beds, dining room chairs and tables, and full kitchens that include stoves and refrigerators.

Residents must be employed in agriculture and earn at least $3,000 a year in agriculture, Hanks said. The rent is $9 per night for one person, and tenants can't stay there for a whole year.