New focus on conditions of farmworkers in San Mateo County

“They have a trailer, it’s not a mobile home, it’s a small thing, it’s 32-foot long and there are five to six people sleeping there, in sleeping bags.”

The farmworkers have portable toilets. They built outdoor kitchenettes so they can cook for themselves. They don’t have refrigerators. There are multiple housing units like this, he said.

The situation is more complex than it appears, he said, because he has experienced situations like this before where farmworker housing was deemed condemned and resulted in the workers losing their homes and jobs.

“So, the solution was worse than the problem,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez, also the farmworker director for Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, a nonprofit dedicated to the farmworker community in Half Moon Bay, said he is aware of the living conditions on the mushroom farm because ALAS visits the farmworkers weekly to bring in supplies and provide services.

David Oates, spokesperson for California Terra Garden, said the family members and workers who live on the property are offered mobile trailers or large recreational vehicles and have all the services and facilities they need including kitchens and bathrooms.

“The cost to rent those is approximately $300,” Oates said, who added the farm’s employees have been staying in hotels but returned to the farm Wednesday night.

Additionally, there was some discussion by Gov. Gavin Newsom and other officials that the employees may be making less than minimum wage, possibly $9 an hour. In California, the minimum wage is $15.50 per hour.

However, Oates said the employees at California Terra Garden make from $16.50 an hour and north of $20 an hour. In addition to the wages, he said employees are provided paid vacations, company sponsored health benefits, life insurance, disability insurance, workers’ compensation insurance and access to 401(k) plan.

“In addition to that, for the family members and employees who live on property they are offered mobile trailers or large recreational vehicles to live in,” Oates said. “And even if you took that rent into account to their pay, they would still be making above minimum wage.”

California Terra Garden owner Jack Guan was in front of the farm Wednesday but deferred all comments to his spokesperson.

Ray Mueller, San Mateo County supervisor for District 3, said the county is going to look at the living conditions at the farms in the city, he said on Tuesday in front of the ALAS building at 636 Purissima St. in Half Moon Bay.

U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, initiated the construction of Moonridge MidPen Housing, an affordable housing community for low-income farmworker families in Half Moon Bay, Mueller said. He said he talked with Eshoo and state legislators and they are planning to build more housing for farmworkers.

“But it’s two-fold, it’s doing that and it’s building farmworker housing, we have to take farmworkers out of the situation and candidly, for farmers who say they can’t afford to have adequate housing, we need to make sure that there is an alternative,” Mueller said.

Additionally, he said officials are going to start inspecting the living conditions on the farms. They are going to be looking for health and safety code violations, he said.

The rumblings of low wages was something he heard for the first time.

“It just tells you how vulnerable the population is,” Mueller said. “This event is an onion, we are going to keep pulling back the layers.”

Between the coastal flooding issues since the New Year’s Eve storm, Mueller reiterated that some of the people didn’t have power or cellphone service for around 10 days which completely isolated them.

“Imagine you are without power for 10 days and then imagine you are a farmworker without power for 10 days, it just compounds,” Mueller said.

Mueller said that he learned a lot over the past few weeks, starting with increasing mental health services, monitoring working conditions and finding ways to ensure that farmworkers are able to live a healthy and sustainable life.

Dr. Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, ALAS executive director and founder, said she wants to focus on the mental health aspect for the farmworkers because she believes it is one of the largest disparities across the state.

“We are not getting mental health for our farmworkers,” Hernandez-Arriaga said. “These farmworkers have gone through significant trauma starting with COVID-19, the hard work on their bodies, the flooding, the economic crisis has hit them so hard.”

She added that ALAS has been doing a food pantry every other week for the past two years for the farmworkers in the area. Hernandez-Arriaga said monetary donations, hygiene products, blankets, clothes, jackets, boots and pillows are all needed.

Visit alasdreams.com/get-involved for ways to contribute to ALAS’ efforts.