Struggle to Provide Housing for Migrant Farmworkers

Stateline: Every spring, a couple million migrant farmworkers, mostly immigrants, many undocumented, jump from farm to farm, state to state, to harvest the nation’s crops.

Given the transient nature of their work, most are dependent on scarce, often dilapidated, temporary housing. Some workers live in employer-owned housing that is licensed and state-regulated — though even this may be in disrepair. Many live in unlicensed, hazardous labor camps, which are often owned by farmers. Rental housing is in short supply in rural areas, making it easy for landlords to charge exorbitant rents. Some farmworkers sleep 10 to a trailer, bunk in barns or camp in the woods.

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