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Migrant farmworkers typically reside during winter in "home base" communities in Florida, Texas, and California, or in Mexico or other Central American and Caribbean nations. As the growing season progresses in the spring and summer, they relocate to points north. These migration patterns north from home bases are referred to as migrant streams. The Eastern migrant stream runs from Florida to New England, the Midwestern stream from Texas to the Great Lakes and Northern Plains states, and the Western stream from southern California to the Pacific Northwest. The survey was conducted in the Eastern stream states of Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina and Virginia. Midwestern stream states surveyed included Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas and Wisconsin. The Western stream states were California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Nationwide, there are between four and five million migrant and seasonal farmworkers.²

General Findings

The survey collected information on 4,625 housing units occupied by farmworkers. There were 1,592 cases in the Eastern migrant stream, 1,367 in the Midwestern migrant stream, and 1,666 in the Western migrant stream. These units housed 24,433 people, of which 16,301 were adults and 8,132 were children. Children were present in almost 69 percent of the units examined.³

Single-family homes and apartments were the most common structure types. Single-family homes comprised 42 percent of the units, and 21 percent of the units examined were apartments. Employers owned 25 percent of all units, and 57 percent of employer-owned units were provided free of charge.

Crowding

Crowding was prevalent among the farmworker housing units. Crowded units are those with a mean of more than one person per room, excluding bathrooms.⁴ Excluding dormitories and barracks (structures designed for high occupancy), almost 52 percent of all units were crowded. Among crowded units, 74 percent had children present. In comparison, the 1997 American Housing Survey (AHS) found 2 percent of all U.S. households and 3 percent of nonmetropolitan households living in crowded conditions.⁵

Appliances and Fixtures

Most units had a stove, refrigerator, bathtub and toilet. However, 22 percent had at least one of these appliances and fixtures missing or broken. More than 10 percent of units lacked a working stove, more than 8 percent lacked a working bath or shower, and more than 9 percent lacked a working toilet. According to the 1997 AHS, 1 percent of all households in the country lacked a cooking stove.

Almost 52 percent of the units lacked access to a working laundry machine, and almost 43 percent lacked a working telephone. Among all U.S. households the 1997 AHS found that 24 percent lacked a laundry machine.

Eastern and Western stream units were more likely to lack access to a working stove, refrigerator, tub/shower and/or toilet than Midwestern units. In the Eastern stream, 25 percent of units lacked at least one of these appliances and fixtures, while in the Western stream 26 percent of units lacked a working version of one of these appliances. Thirteen percent of Midwestern units lacked working versions of these appliances and fixtures.

Housing Quality Items

Overall, 26 percent of the units were directly adjacent to fields where pesticides were applied. Sixty-five percent of Eastern migrant stream units were in these locations, the highest incidence among the migrant streams. This is likely due to the Eastern stream having the highest percentage of employer-owned housing surveyed compared with the Midwestern and Western streams. Among units next to treated fields, 53 percent lacked a working tub/shower, laundry machine, or both. Children lived in 60 percent of all units adjacent to fields where pesticides were applied.

Serious structural problems, which include sagging roofs, house frames or porches, were evident in 22 percent of the units, and 15 percent had holes or large sections of shingles missing from their roofs. Foundation damage was evident in 10 percent of all units. Windows with broken glass or screens were found in 36 percent of the units, and almost 41 percent had significant areas of peeling paint on their exteriors.

Interior problems were also prevalent in the survey units. Twenty-nine percent of the units had peeling paint or broken plaster, and 29 percent had evidence of water leakage. Holes were noted in the walls of 22 percent of the units, and unsanitary conditions, such as rodent or insect infestation, were evident in 19 percent of the units. Nine percent of the units had frayed wiring or other electrical problems evident, compared with the 1997 AHS finding that 1 percent of all U.S. households had this problem.

Substandard Housing

HAC classified units with physical deficiencies as either "moderately substandard" or "severely substandard."⁶ Among all the units in HAC's farmworker housing survey, 17 percent were severely substandard and 16 percent were moderately substandard. The Eastern migrant stream had the highest incidence of substandard housing, with 44 percent of Eastern units either severely or moderately substandard. Thirty-two percent of Western and 21 percent of Midwestern units were moderately or severely substandard. Mobile homes were the type of unit most likely to be severely or moderately substandard, and 44 percent of mobile homes were in this condition. The 1997 AHS found that among all U.S. households, 5 percent live in moderately inadequate housing and 2 percent live in severely inadequate housing.

Of all severely or moderately substandard units, excluding dormitories and barracks, 63 percent were also crowded, with crowded and substandard units comprising 20 percent of all units. Thirty-three percent of households in substandard units also had housing cost burden, paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing. Cost-burdened households in substandard housing were 11 percent of all units surveyed. Substandard units with households both crowded and cost-burdened comprised 19 percent of all substandard units and 6 percent of all units surveyed.

Households with children occupied 65 percent of severely substandard units with the same percentage in moderately substandard units. Additionally, units with numerous serious problems were very likely to have children living in them. Children were living in 70 percent of the units that were moderately or severely substandard and crowded. Among the units that were moderately or severely substandard, crowded, and whose households had housing cost burden, 94 percent had children present.

Income, Housing Cost, and Housing Cost Burden

The median monthly income for farmworker respondents was $860. The median monthly housing cost was $345. Excluding units where no rent was charged, the median housing cost was $380.

A large percentage of the households occupying the surveyed units had poverty-level incomes. Fifty-nine percent of the units were occupied by households with incomes at 80 percent or less of Area Median Income (AMI). Thirty-eight percent of the farmworker households had incomes of 50 percent or less of AMI, and 17 percent had incomes 30 percent or less of AMI.⁷ Forty-five percent of U.S. households had incomes at or below 80 percent of AMI and 28 percent had incomes at or below 50 percent of AMI according to the 1997 AHS.

Among all the households, 29 percent had housing cost burden, paying more than 30 percent of their monthly income for housing. Excluding units provided free of charge, 34 percent of households had housing cost burden. Among all cost-burdened households, over 85 percent had children present.

Forty-three percent of Western stream households were cost-burdened, the highest proportion among the migrant streams. In comparison, 16 percent of Eastern stream households were similarly burdened. Twenty-two percent of Midwestern households paid too much for their housing. Compared to the other migrant streams, the Western stream exhibited lower individual median incomes, higher median housing costs, and fewer wage earners per household.

Migration-Related Findings

The mean length of stay in all units was 7.6 months. Length of stay patterns for states are generally consistent with the growing seasons within each migrant stream, with a shorter season farther north, and a longer season in home base states. Findings from some upstream states, however, suggest that many migrant farmworkers may be settling out and making these upstream locations their homes. In Oregon and Washington, for example, the mean length of stay was more than 10 months, and more than 60 percent of respondents in each state indicated they lived in the units surveyed year-round.

The survey asked for the place where respondents last lived. In the Eastern migrant stream home base of Florida, 18 percent of respondents last lived outside of the United States, and most noted Mexico as their prior residence. Thirty-five percent of Florida respondents last lived somewhere else in Florida. Only 9 percent of Florida respondents last lived in a state outside the Eastern stream. Thirty-four percent of Eastern upstream respondents last lived in Mexico, and 5 percent last lived in other countries outside the United States. Florida was the most common prior residence of Eastern upstream respondents, with 30 percent noting that is where they lived prior to their current unit. Only 2 percent of upstream respondents had their prior residence in a state outside the Eastern migrant stream.

In Texas, home base for the Midwestern migrant stream, 16 percent of respondents noted their prior residence as Mexico. More than 30 percent of Texas respondents last lived elsewhere in the state. Ten percent of Texas respondents last lived outside the Midwestern migrant stream. Almost all the Midwestern upstream respondents whose prior residence was outside the United States had last lived in Mexico, comprising 21 percent of Midwestern upstream respondents. Forty-five percent of upstream Midwestern respondents reported Texas as their prior residence.

In California, considered the home base state in the Western stream, almost 79 percent of respondents had last lived elsewhere in the state. Seventeen percent reported their prior residence as Mexico. A large percentage of upstream respondents last lived in the upstream region of the Northwest, with 17 percent noting that they last lived in Oregon and 20 percent last living in Washington. Only 10 percent of Western upstream respondents identified California as their last residence.

Regional Comparisons

Upstream areas of the Midwestern and Western migrant streams had greater percentages of farmworker households with below-median incomes than their home base states, whereas Florida had a larger percentage of such households than Eastern upstream states. In the Eastern and Midwestern migrant streams housing cost burden rates were higher in the home base states than in upstream regions. In the Western stream, though, the upstream Northwest had more prevalent cost burden than California. The incidence of substandard housing followed a pattern somewhat similar to that of housing cost burden. Upstream regions of the Eastern and Midwestern migrant streams had smaller or similar proportions of substandard housing, while substandard housing was more pronounced in the upstream Northwest than in the Western stream's home base state of California.

The two areas with the greatest confluence of serious housing problems were Florida and the Northwest region. Compared with California, the Northwest region had a greater percentage of households with incomes below area medians, cost-burdened households, substandard units and a slightly higher percentage of crowded units. Compared with upstream areas in the Eastern migrant stream, Florida also had higher percentages for each of these categories. Although both regions had substantial problems with housing cost and quality, the weight of these problems varies somewhat. While the Northwest has the highest percentages of households below median income and cost-burdened households of any of the regions, Florida leads all of the other regions in its percentage of substandard units and crowded units.

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To purchase a printed copy of the report for $4.00, contact Luz Rosas at HAC, 202-842-8600 or e-mail luz@ruralhome.org.

HAC's press release about this report is available here.

Footnotes to Executive Summary

1. The survey was conducted from December 1997 through October 1998 in the Eastern migrant stream. Midwestern and Western migrant stream survey work was conducted from May 1999 through June 2000. Sixteen farmworker service organizations participated in the survey.

2. This estimate of the number of farmworkers in the United States is based on national figures from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Health Resources Administration, Migrant Health Program, An Atlas of State Profiles, Which Estimates Numbers of Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers and Members of Their Families, March 1990.

3. The basic measure in the survey was the individual housing unit or household, and each housing unit was surveyed only once. A household is defined as the people occupying a single unit, whether or not they are related. Since only occupied units were examined in HAC's survey, each unit is equivalent to one household. However, it is possible that individual farmworkers may have responded to the survey questions twice, since they may have been interviewed once in a home base state such as Florida, Texas or California, and again in a different location upstream. Survey results will therefore be reported in terms of housing units and households, since individuals may have been double-counted.

4. It should be noted that some Rural Housing Service-funded (RHS-funded) apartment-style housing is designed for occupancy levels higher than the Census and American Housing Survey (AHS) definition of crowding used in this report. These cases are most likely in RHS-funded projects designed to serve migrant farmworkers.

5. Housing Assistance Council, Why Housing Matters: HAC's 2000 Report on the State of the Nation's Rural Housing, Washington, D.C.: December 2000, Appendix B, Table 5. All other references to American Housing Survey (AHS) data used in this report are taken from this publication.

6. See Appendix G for an explanation of HAC's severely and moderately substandard housing classifications. HAC's measures of substandard housing differ somewhat from those used by the AHS. AHS figures are presented in order to suggest the magnitude of the housing needs documented in HAC's survey.

7. HAC asked respondents for their net income, since farmworkers often must pay their employers for transportation, use of tools, and other things. These figures are therefore not directly comparable to those used by the Census Bureau or AHS, which generally use gross income to calculate poverty rates and the burden of high housing costs.