California closes thousands of farmworkers’ homes annually. New law explores keeping them open
By Mathew Miranda,
24 days ago
Thousands of California migrant farmworkers are required to leave their housing annually, leaving units empty for months — but a new law might change that.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2240 Wednesday afternoon instructing the state to explore keeping its 24 migrant farmworker housing complexes open year-round. These seasonal centers have existed since the 1970s and have continued to operate on the same schedule, even as the needs and demographics of farmworkers have changed significantly.
At a Wednesday press conference in Fresno, Newsom and bill author Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, signaled the mandated study was a step in making the centers available year-round. Arambula said he envisioned a scenario where the centers have housing options for permanent and migrant farmworkers.
“The very nature of migrant farm work has changed so there’s an additional requirement and update needed in that space,” Newsom said at the press conference in Fresno.
California currently operates the centers — which house about 7,000 farmworkers and family members — from about May through November. The complexes then close and remain vacant until the next agricultural work season.
AB 2240 has evolved since Arambula introduced it in February. The bill initially proposed that the centers, owned by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, operate year-round by 2031.
That proposition faced pushback from advocacy organizations and farmworkers from particular housing centers that argued such a change would effectively eliminate the migrant housing program in California. The centers stretch from the Oregon border to Kern County, with local housing authorities, nonprofits and growers’ associations owning the land and managing the centers. HCD subsidizes residents’ rent.
In response to the opposition, the Legislature amended the bill to require HCD to analyze the impact of transitioning the centers to year-round availability by Jan. 1, 2027.
“We wanted to make sure to protect those who wanted that flexibility to continue to migrate, while giving options to those who wish to stay,” Arambula said in an interview with The Bee.
AB 2240 will also now require HCD by Jan. 1, 2026 to update its definition of “migratory agricultural worker,” which residents must meet to live at the center. Per state law, a migrant farmworker is defined as an individual who makes at least 50% of their total income from agricultural employment and lives 50 miles away for at least three months after the housing centers close for the season.
The distance rule was created to ensure those living in migrant housing were truly migratory. Under AB 2240, the rule no longer applies with residents with school age children.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.