The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck chronicles the travails of an Oklahoma family who travel West during the Great Depression to escape the Dust Bowl.
Lured by the promise of well-paying farm jobs, they arrive in California’s Salinas valley, the so-called “Salad Bowl of the World.”
Magnifying their woes, these migrant farmworkers encounter predatory employers, overcrowded camps, desperate living conditions, and destitution.
You might think these conditions relate to a bygone era. Unfortunately not. Shockingly, 85 years after the publication of this great American novel, conditions for migrant farmworkers in the Salinas Valley have improved only a bit.
That’s why DCI was excited to partner with Avila Construction, one of the main players in the emerging space of employer-sponsored farmworker housing and a key force in catalyzing a long-overdue sea change in agricultural housing.
One 2018 study on agricultural housing in the Salinas and neighboring Pajaro valleys projected:
…a need for 45,560 units of housing to alleviate overcrowding in farmworker households in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. And the need is only increasing as more agricultural employers are resorting to the H2A guest worker program to fill a vacuum in a worsening labor shortage.
In the Salinas Valley, housing is sparse for farmworkers. Usually, they have to resort to private options where quality control is sketchy at best and workers cram into claustrophobic living spaces to save money. Private landlords expect deposits, credit checks, long term commitments—resources that temporary laborers rarely have.
H2A housing specifically is often in the form of bunkhouse and barracks-style housing, Bracero-era migrant camps, or low-end motels. These formats often leave residents without access to cooking facilities. Frequently, bathrooms are communal, offering no privacy to users.
According to the website, Farmworkers Justice:
Farmworkers disproportionally live in crowded housing conditions. The Housing Assistance Council estimates that at least one-third of farmworkers live in crowded conditions — more than six times the rate of crowded homes nationally…Very few farmworkers receive any form of housing assistance from a state, local, or federal government entity.
However, there are some genuine bright spots in the otherwise bleak outlook for migrant workers.
Over the last 8 years, leaders in the Salinas farming community have started financing employer-sponsored farmworker housing projects for their migrant workers.
Nationally, this employer-sponsored housing trend roughly accounts for 10 to 15 percent of farmworker housing units. But those numbers might be starting to shift in a positive direction thanks to forward thinking agricultural employers and Avila Construction.
And because of the implicit social mission and the risk that employers take to invest in this kind of housing, partner organizations like Avila Construction feel privileged to build for them.
Over the last 5 years, DCI has had the pleasure of working with Avila on two major projects.
According to Avila’s website:
We build both agricultural worker housing and housing serving all other members of the community. Our apartment style ag housing projects are known as the gold standard of ag housing. As of March 2023, we have completed over 450 living units for agricultural workers. By March 2024, this number will grow to over 500.
To date, we’ve worked with Avila on projects in the Salinas Valley—Walnut & Third and Rava Ranches. Just like DCI, Avila is a family run company with multiple generations coming together to affect positive change.
Walnut & Third
Our first project with Avila Construction was farmworker housing in Greenfield, CA. This upscale ag housing project is called Walnut & Third and includes beds for 840 farmworkers with 720 beds complete as of the March 2024 harvesting season.
Speaking at the ribbon cutting for the project in 2021, Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez said:
“This project here is a testament to Greenfield, Avila Construction, Duda Farms and Elkhorn Packing working together to create housing that is the type of housing we want and need in our valley.”
And the team at Avila was instrumental in defining and designing the kind of housing Lopez lauded. Making these spaces feel like a home away from home was an essential consideration for Kathryn Avila, who is part of the team working on agricultural housing for Avila Construction.
To date, the project has rolled out over multiple years with a target completion date in 2025. In year one, we furnished Building A and B. Each contained 120 beds, 15 lounges, and 15 kitchenettes. In year two, we furnished buildings C and D and in year three, we furnished building E.
Each bedroom set included Twin XL solid wood bunkable beds and solid wood underbed storage units. All the furnishings feature a premium natural maple finish.
In addition to bedroom sets, we built custom sofas, sectionals, and occasional tables for the living rooms, and dining tables and chairs for the kitchenettes.
Here’s a brief timeline of the project so far.
- Feb 2021 – Buildings A and B furnished.
- March 2022 – Buildings C and D furnished.
- Jan 2023 – Building E furnished.
- March 2024 – Buildings F and G – in process.
Rava Ranches
Our second Avila project was at Rava Ranches in King City, CA just 12 miles south of Greenfield. There we helped the Avila Team furnish fifty nine Apartments which house up to eight people each.
The facility they constructed consists of 59 living units, 1 manager unit, laundry, and recreation facilities. The project includes high end finishes and amenities like wood cabinets, solid surface counters, and solar carports.
Each apartment has two bedroom suites, a living room, and a kitchen, which DCI was contracted to furnish.
Of course, it’s also complicated when an employer provides housing for their employees. As such, the furniture must pass rigorous inspection by a federal regulator. The inspection is based on strict regulations for farmworker housing.
DCI provided all the furniture for every unit and used a custom premium stain. To date, apartment-style projects like Walnut & Third and Rava Ranches are considered the nicest farmworker housing in the country.
