Farmworker Housing
Skagit County has fewer multifamily housing units available to buy than the state average (15% compared to 28%) and efforts to increase that number have stalled.
This issue of The Dirt addresses a topic of growing concern for Skagit agriculture: The insufficient quantity of safe and affordable housing for farmworkers.
A Few Facts about Skagit Agriculture
The diversity of Skagit agriculture is seen in the preponderance of specialty crops: fruits, vegetables, horticulture and nursery crops that are typically grown for fresh market sale or processing.
These crops must be aesthetically pleasing to be sold. Often that requires specialized care ranging from limited mechanization to by-hand cultivation and harvest to avoid bruising or other damage. The people who provide that specialized care are farmworkers.
Types of Farmworkers
According to data from 2011, one-half of all hired and contracted farmworkers in the U.S. are concentrated in six states. In descending order, Washington ranks fourth among the six. The high proportion of specialty crops is the reason. Labor is the largest variable expense for growers of specialty crops.
The two predominant types of farmworkers in Skagit County are seasonal and migratory.
Seasonal farmworkers do not have regular, year-round employment from a single employer. In most cases, they work 12 months of the year, but for a succession of different employers.
Migrant farmworkers follow the crops/work over sometimes great distances. Their work is nomadic, but essential for the most productive, time-sensitive period of the growing season.
A recent study, published in January of this year, puts 56% of agricultural employment in Skagit County as seasonal/year-round, while 44% is migratory.
Appropriate Housing for All Farmworkers
A 2010 local study concluded that another 800 housing units were needed in the County to ensure safe and decent accommodation for both types of farmworkers. The 2022 study, conducted by the State of Washington, now estimates that need has grown to nearly 1400 units.
The housing requirements that must be met, regardless of seasonal or migratory farmworkers, are clean water, waste disposal, cleanliness and safety.
For migratory workers that does not necessarily require permanent infrastructure. It does require well-designed, well-regulated seasonal housing ranging from tents and RVs to permanent seasonal housing.
Seasonal farmworkers tend to stay in an area and work year after year for the same sequence of employers. The problem they face is suitable housing in a highly competitive and cost-prohibitive market.
It All Comes Down to Barriers
Farmworkers face barriers in securing housing on the private market that are related to language and educational status, low wages, inconsistent employment, and lack of credit.
But even if all those issues were resolved, the biggest hurdle of all is the extremely low quantity of suitable housing stock in Skagit County.
Less than 5% of the available housing stock in the County is affordable on farmworkers wages despite the fact that Skagit County farmworkers earn slightly higher wages than the statewide average.
Here's the rub: Housing costs have risen much faster than wages. Farmworkers—and many others in the workforce—are getting squeezed out of whatever portion of the housing market they ever had.
What's Been Done So Far
A number of the larger farms have gone so far as to buy apartment complexes and homes to provide housing for their employees. But Skagit County has fewer multifamily housing units available to buy than the state average (15% compared to 28%) and efforts to increase that number have stalled.
In addition to these facilities, a local grower has made the commitment to fund and operate the only privately owned state-certified and inspected seasonal housing facility.
But these efforts cannot cover enough of the need.
The Housing Authority of Skagit County and Catholic Housing Services of Western Washington provide community-based housing specifically for farmworker families. But their funding is limited and still, the need for housing exceeds what's available.
No Simple Solutions
Currently on the County Commissioners' docket is a review of a proposal to change the County's rules on agricultural and rural lands' to allow multifamily housing to be built for farmworkers.
Specifically, the goal is to convert disused, even derelict, farm buildings into appropriate housing. But, as simple—though expensive—as that sounds, it is fraught with issues that, we believe, create more problems than they solve.
First, there is no reasonable expectation that Skagit County can enforce any provision that only farmworkers can live in the newly built housing, especially housing meant for a migratory workforce.
Housing is expensive to build and maintain and there is tremendous economic pressure to have the units occupied year round.
Second, it ties housing to an employment arrangement that may, or may not, work out for the farmworker, let alone the farmworker's family. If it doesn't work out, then where does the farmworker move next?
Third, there is a reason housing is limited on agricultural and rural lands. Housing changes the nature of the land. It requires accommodations that have nothing to do with growing the crops themselves.
Parking for personal vehicles and basic necessities like water and waste removal not readily available on the land detract from the agricultural purpose and fudge the distinctions of what makes farmland, farmland.
It is also an inadequate answer to a much bigger problem.
Building Out Isn't the Answer
Allowing a proliferation of farmworker housing on farms themselves is a form of sprawl that will not/cannot provide sufficient housing for a stable, skilled workforce.
It may ease a few small pockets of need, but it's just another patch that ignores the real problem: the dismally low stock of affordable housing. Not just for farmworkers, but for an ever increasing number of workers and their families in general.
What Farmworkers Say They Want
The State's 2022 study found that, "Year-round workers who live in and around agricultural areas often prefer to be in a central location and look for work on different farms. Many of these workers have families and would prefer to be close to amenities such as schools, churches, and other employers."
Remember, 56% of agricultural employment in Skagit County is classified as seasonal/year-round. Typically more skilled, and subsequently better paid, these workers are the labor foundation that would benefit most from a committed focus on affordable housing.
The Lack of Housing Choices
The bulk of housing development in Skagit County is almost exclusively large tracts of single-family residences. They are expensive to build. They require extensive infrastructure in roadways, sewer and water lines and the maintenance of that infrastructure falls on the municipalities where they are located.
Unfortunately for those municipalities, the taxes generated by such housing falls well below the costs incurred by the municipalities to provide services like fire and police and to maintain roadways, sewers, and water lines.
Multifamily housing, in areas designated for such development, does return a sufficient tax base to the community to cover services and infrastructure maintenance.
Time to Rethink/Redo
The solution lies in rethinking housing, not just for farmworkers but workers of all types.
In the 2022 study, the State of Washington calls on local municipalities to use their authority to a) Increase zoning for multifamily housing within urban growth areas and make necessary strategic investments in infrastructure to support additional housing development, and b) Remove barriers to the development of rental housing.
Encouraging cities to identify and remove barriers to rental housing development is an important strategy to address housing needs for farmworkers.
SPF strongly supports the State's recommendations and stands ready to work with the community to support the increase of zoning for multifamily housing in all our cities.
The availability of better housing options would work to attract and sustain a reliable workforce not only for our growers, but many other employers besides, striving to meet labor demands season after season.
It is time.
By Teresa Bennett: info@skagitonians.org
Photos: SPF, and Gary Brown