California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.

2010 Report

(Un)Safe at Home: The Health Consequences of Sub-standard Farm Labor Housing

"Farmworkers and their families in rural California and throughout this country often are forced to live in the most despicable and challenging conditions. They sleep in onion fields, live in caves dug into canyons, bathe in irrigation ditches, huddle under tarps or find refuge in cars, tool sheds, barns and in river banks, face rent gouging for substandard and dangerous housing units, rent rooms in dilapidated old motels, face housing discrimination because of who they are, what they look like or the language they speak and suffer retaliatory eviction and firing should they have the temerity to complain about such third world conditions in the richest nation in the world." Ilene J. Jacobs, Director of Litigation, Advocacy and Training California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.

(Un)Safe at Home: The Health Consequences of Sub-standard Farm Labor Housing was developed as part of the Rural Justice Forum (RJF), an ongoing series of conferences, workshops, and symposia convened each year by CRLA to showcase emerging research and advocacy focused on the needs of low-income rural communities and marginalized populations within California. This paper reflects the focus of the RJF over the past two years: Addressing the persistent problem of substandard housing for farmworkers, and the related health implications of living in unhealthy environments.

We hope you will join us in addressing this problem and finding solutions that will bring about healthier, safer lives for farmworkers in California and beyond.

2009 Forum Events

Please check back periodically for updates on the next Rural Justice Forum.

2008 Forum Events

Our first Rural Justice Forum focused on farmworker housing and related health disparities.The Forum centered on a discussion of an original paper entitled, (Un)Safe at Home: The Health Consequences of Sub-standard Farm Labor Housing. The paper was authored by a working group comissioned by CRLA to explore related research and literature on the topic of health and housing for farmworkers.

Housing conditions for many of California’s farm workers continue to be so poor that the residents’ health and wellbeing is clearly threatened. Health risk associated with housing range from inadequate sanitation to lack of heat to the psychological effects of long-term residence in what can only be described as “housing” if the broadest definition is taken. While the health risks area clearly apparent in individual cases, empirical research examining the association between farm workers’ health and their housing is underdeveloped.

Download the Full Invitation [1.6MB]

The authors include:

Dr. Don Villarejo, PhD, Farm Labor Policy Consultant, Davis, California,

Marc Schenker, Professor, Dept. of Public Health Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, CA

Ann Moss Joyner, MBA, Vice President, Cedar Grove Inst. for Sustainable Communities, Mebane NC

Dr. Alan Parnell, PhD, President, Cedar Grove Inst. for Sustainable Communities, Mebane NC

Reviewers Include:

Dr. Thomas A. Arcury, PhD, Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC

Dr. Asa Bradman, PhD, MS, Associate Director, Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research University of California, Berkeley

Ms. Ilene J. Jacobs, Directory of Litigation, Advocacy and Training, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.

Dr. Edward Kissam, Census Grant Researcher, JBS International, California

Dr. Juan Vicente Palerm, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Gary Richwald, MD, MPH, California

Ms. Melinda Wiggins, Executive Director, MTS, Student Action with Farmworkers, NC