Categories: News

California’s agricultural industry would collapse without farmworkers, but these same workers can’t find safe, affordable housing in the state

Farmworkers—who are essential to California’s multibillion-dollar agricultural industry—can’t find safe, affordable housing in the state, according to Civil Eats. The outlet talked with workers like Rosalia Martinez, who says she finds it “unbearable” to live in a small, converted garage with her husband and their three young children. “It’s a single room without privacy and the rent—$1,350 a month—is a lot more than the farmworker family can afford.” Farmworkers earn an average annual pay of $20,500, while struggling to find housing in one of the most expensive states in the country. Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom did announce that California would invest over $30 million in upgrading its 24 migrant housing centers, and the governor committed $100 million for the construction and rehabilitation of permanent farmworker housing. —Tina Vasquez

Related Post
The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter

Recent Posts

Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical

Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices,…

7 months ago

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

3 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

3 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

3 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

3 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

3 years ago