How and why we dug into farmworker housing

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Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. Today, it’s Wendy Fry here with Felicia Mello to talk to you about our latest investigation into how California state housing inspectors have struggled to make sure farms are providing guest workers with safe and adequate housing.

We’d noticed that the number of workers on H2A visas — a federal program for the temporary agricultural employment of foreign workers — had nearly tripled in California over the past six years. At the same time, the state was suffering a blistering housing crisis. We wanted to know how those two themes overlapped and what the state was doing to protect these vulnerable workers.

It turns out that California assigns only three inspectors full-time to review housing for the state’s 41,000 guest workers. Inspection records and complaints filed with the state showed the living conditions some workers endured: overcrowding, electrical hazards, mold, missing fire extinguishers, and windows that didn’t open.

A few complaints stood out. I’ll let my reporting partner, Felicia, tell you about one of them.

Felicia here. After Wendy and data reporter Erica Yee analyzed some of the complaints, we noticed a report of dozens of guest workers living in a Salinas hotel with only two-and-a-half bathrooms. Some of the beds had no mattresses, the complaint alleged, and the hotel rooms were infested with bedbugs, rats and roaches.

I contacted the lawyer who’d filed the complaint on the workers’ behalf, and she connected me with one of them, Antonio.

Many guest workers hesitate to publicly tell their stories for fear of retaliation from their employers. But Antonio wanted to speak out. He said he still suffered from insomnia after spending months sleeping on the floor and in a bare metal cot during his time as a guest worker. And, he said, he wanted to prevent this from happening to other workers.

We dug into public records and interviewed experts to find out how Antonio’s case had fallen through the cracks. Along the way, we discovered some gaps in the state’s oversight system: Inspectors were doing routine inspections only when housing was empty, though conditions can change after workers arrive. In a handful of 2023 cases, they had signed off on housing without ever visiting it. And while state inspectors found 1,053 violations in employee housing in 2022, they did not issue a single citation to the employers responsible for providing safe housing.

The Department of Housing and Community Development, which oversees employee housing, said it is stepping up enforcement and plans to hire more inspectors. We’ll continue to follow this story and others about the agricultural guest workers who play a key role in one of the state’s most important industries.

Have you worked as a guest worker in California or do you know someone who has? Tell us your story here.

¿Ha usted trabajado en una granja en California por medio del programa H2A? Cuéntenos su historia.

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• Heat investigation. California’s workplace safety agency and other state agencies are investigating a Solano County-based farm labor contractor after workers say they were fired for leaving work during scorching summer temperatures, reports KCRA, the NBC affiliate in Sacramento .
• ‘Medicare Cliff.’ New research from the National Council on Aging finds low-income adults who lose their Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) coverage when they enroll in Medicare at age 65 often see their out-of-pocket medical expenses go up, their net worth decrease and their health decline. Lower-income adults face an average of $2,600 a year in new out-of-pocket medical expenses for premiums, MarketWatch reported .
• Doctor shortage. A hospital closure in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley a year and a half ago drives many residents far out of the region for health care. That’s one reason California is developing a medical program at UC Merced, CalMatters’ Ana B. Ibarra reports .

• Ethnic studies. Proposed legislation that would strengthen requirements for approval of ethnic studies courses and materials is facing pushback and tension, according to a report from EdSource. Opponents say the lack of clarity in the bill may leave teachers vulnerable to unwanted scrutiny.
• Cost of pollution. Air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley is costing residents, schools, and businesses hundreds of millions of dollars a year in medical expenses for upper respiratory infections and asthma, according to researchers at UC Merced .
• Border security. Border security and surveillance is a rapidly growing and lucrative industry, funneling hundreds of millions of public dollars to tech conglomerates and start-ups. The Electronic Frontier Foundation this week released a dataset of the vendors who supply or market the technology for homeland security.
• Budget woes. The state’s final budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed June 29 restored some funding to programs for undocumented residents that were previously threatened by severe revenue shortfalls, reports Capital and Main. Those without federal legal status remain ineligible for other anti-poverty programs, including badly needed food benefits for older Californians.

Thanks for following our work on the California Divide team. While you’re here, please tell us what kinds of stories you’d love to read. Email us at inequalityinsights@calmatters.org .

Thanks for reading,
Felicia, Wendy and The California Divide Team