Oregon housing bill includes $5M for on-farm housing improvements
The $200 million housing and homeless package awaiting Gov. Tina Kotek’s signature includes $5 million for on-farm agricultural housing.
The grant program is included in House Bill 2001, an expansive housing bill that aims to declares a housing emergency and invests millions of dollars in housing infrastructure.
The farmworker housing funds would help agricultural employers maintain housing units and improve the health and safety conditions of already-existing workforce housing.
At $5 million, the grant program is one of the smaller allotments in the housing bill, which also includes funding for rental assistance and eviction prevention, affordable housing development and low-barrier shelter beds, among other things.
Approximately 400 registered agricultural housing units shelter some 10,000 farmworkers and their families per year, according to the Oregon OSHA registry. Growers say maintaining those units is expensive and existing state aid isn't enough. A grant program could help fill the gaps.
The grant program looks a lot like what growers and grower advocates asked for in former Gov. Kate Brown’s agricultural housing task force. It also responds to grower critiques about the Agricultural Workforce Housing Tax Credit, which is meant to help farmers recoup costs of housing maintenance, but some growers say isn’t effective.
What would the $5 million be used for?
The $5 million grant program would be managed by the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
Once adopted, agricultural employers who already operate workforce housing could apply, provided they already comply with current health and safety rules and have registered their housing units with Oregon OSHA.
Application criteria and process are not specified in the bill as written. Those details would be left to the Department of Agriculture.
Oregon OSHA is in the early stages of reviewing and amending on-farm housing rules. If the rules change or expand, the Department of Agriculture and Oregon OSHA would have 30 days to update the grant application criteria. Applications that comply with changes to rules will be prioritized.
This provision of the bill also allocates roughly $500,000 to develop and administer the program.
How did we get here?
On-farm agricultural housing is a shrinking but persistent need. Roughly 10,000 farmworkers and their families, about 10% of the state’s agricultural workforce, live in registered farm labor housing for at least part of the year.
Employers who provide housing to their employees must register the housing units and ensure they meet certain health and safety requirements. But maintaining housing is costly, grower advocates say, and state funding has traditionally focused on new housing or community-based housing.
A farmworker housing tax credit was designed in the in 1989 to help offset construction costs. Today, the lion’s share of tax credits are claimed by community-based housing developers, not farmers.
In task force and housing facilitation team meetings, growers and advocates claimed a tax credit does not work for farms who already don’t earn much profit.
The $5 million grant program was first proposed by Brown’s agricultural housing task force, which wrapped up in December. It was introduced to HB 2001 as an amendment and adopted Feb. 28.
Meanwhile, Oregon OSHA is in the early stages of adopting new rules and regulations for on-farm housing. The language and substance of those rules has yet to be determined, but grower advocates say complying with them will come at a high cost.
“The [grant] program will provide needed financial assistance to farmers struggling under the weight of increased regulatory and inflationary pressures and allow them to make health and safety improvements to agricultural workforce housing this year,” Oregon Farm Bureau testified in a letter supporting HB 2001.
What's next?
HB 2001 and its sibling bill, HB 5019, cleared both chambers of the legislature with bipartisan support. The housing package awaits Kotek's expected signature.
Shannon Sollitt covers agricultural workers through Report for America, a program that aims to support local journalism and democracy by reporting on under-covered issues and communities. Send tips, questions and comments to ssollitt@statesmanjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon farmworker housing program included in housing bill
