Lawmaker Backs Straw Housing For Migrants

A state legislator says a bill to provide temporary housing made of bales of straw and hard-shell for farm workers would be a great improvement over what many migrant workers now have.

But others are not so sure, and the United Farm Workers wants Gov. Gary Locke to veto the bill. He has until May 20 to sign the bill.

State Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Skyway, who sponsored the bill, said the new quarters would be a great improvement over current conditions, where many farm workers “are living along the riverbanks or in their cars.”

“My focus is the workers. I want to do something about the people who come here to pick the crop,” said Prentice, who is the first Hispanic woman in the Legislature.

Under the bill, structures made of straw bales and hard-shell will be constructed at the estimated cost of $22 per square foot - down from the $100 per square foot costs of permanent housing. Snow roofs and insulation would not be required.

Inspection of the structures would be removed from the building code and placed under the state Department of Health.

UFW representatives say the housing would make farm workers second-class citizens. Guadalupe Gamboa, Washington state director of the United Farm Workers, said the bill would “institutionalize” the new structures and would hurt further efforts to improve housing conditions for the workers.

“It is a step backward,” Gamboa said Monday, recalling the conditions under which Mexican farm workers worked and lived 50 years ago.

About 65 percent of farm workers now live in the area all year, while about 35 percent arrive on a seasonal basis.