All Too Often, 'Squalid' Defines Farmworkers' American Dream

Faustino Hernandez is one of seven people who pay $700 a month to live in this dilapidated trailer east of Haines City.

GREG FIGHT / Tribune

By JENNIFER LEIGH News Channel 8

Published: Feb 7, 2006

WAHNETA - Large spider webs cling to the ceiling of a mobile home where 2 1/2 -month-old Isela lives with her 15-year-old mother and five other people.

The plywood floors are buckled. The windows that still have glass are sealed with duct tape; those that don't are covered with wood.

It's the only life Isela has known. And thousands of other migrant farmworkers and their families in Central Florida share her plight.

Isela's parents came illegally to this small Polk County community from Mexico a few months ago. Neither of them speaks English, but roommate Miguel Gomez does. He said migrant farmworkers have few choices when it comes to housing.

That's the case throughout much of rural Polk County, where accommodations for migrant laborers often consist of dilapidated mobile homes, cramped conditions and a lack of heat or air conditioning.

A county code enforcement sign on a mobile home east of Haines City warns of unsafe conditions. Inside are David Martinez and six acquaintances. They pay $700 a month to live in the mobile home, which is among a cluster of mobile homes on the property.

"It's difficult to get good homes here," Martinez said through a translator. "By the time we get here in December, it's hard. A lot of people are already here before us, and they get the best places."

State law requires people who rent to five or more unrelated migrant farmworkers to register with county health departments and to submit to inspections.

In Polk, there are 32 registered housing operations that collectively provide 1,738 beds to migrant farmworkers. A study prepared for the federal Bureau of Primary Health Care's Migrant Health Program shows that in 2000 there were at least 10,216 migrant farmworkers living in the county.

Israel Midence is Polk's migrant housing inspector, the only one. He said a fraction of residences that should be inspected actually are.

Tim Mayer is Midence's supervisor at the Polk County Health Department. He said 17 other inspectors in the department's environmental health division help look for migrant housing violations. None of them, however, is assigned that task.

Mayer said budget constraints preclude dedicating more inspectors to migrant farmworker housing.

"Right now everybody's limited by funding, and that's probably the biggest thing," Mayer said.

Hillsborough County has 70 registered migrant farmworker housing operations and 4,495 beds, according to the state Department of Health's migrant housing report.

Like Polk, Hillsborough has one inspector.

Laura Badillo, 24, and her family migrated for work until three years ago. Now she and her family rent housing registered and regulated by the Polk County Health Department.

She said few migrant farmworkers complain about substandard residences because they fear being kicked out of their homes or even the country. Also, Badillo said, many farmworkers don't know that "there are actually people who are going to try to help them live better."

Greg Schell, a lawyer with Florida Legal Services Inc.'s Migrant Farmworker Justice Program, is among those people.

He tries to improve working and living conditions for migrant laborers. He said many Americans aren't aware of the workers' plight.

"There is a tendency to say, 'It's their own fault and to heck with them.' However, what's really unfair is we have reaped the benefits of these folks' work," Schell said.

According to University of Florida economist Fritz Roka, migrant farmworkers have a tremendous effect on the Tampa Bay area's agricultural bottom line. Research he compiled from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2002 Census of Agriculture shows that migrant farmworkers helped generate a combined $864.5 million in crop values in Polk, Pasco, Hillsborough and Manatee counties in 2002.

Migrant farmworker Miguel Gomez said he does work that Americans don't want to do. For that reason, he said, more Americans should care about his living conditions and those of other migrant laborers and their families.

Jennifer Leigh seeks answers on why more isn't being done to improve migrant housing at 6 p.m. on WFLA-TV.