USDA Rural Housing Administrator: Oregon knows what it needs

USDA's Rural Housing Administrator Joaquin Altoro spent the week traveling the state to learn about Oregon's farmworker and rural housing needs. The various stakeholders he met had one thing in common, he said.

"People are very clear about what the problem is," Altoro said. "You're clear about the issues. And you're getting together and really pushing hard for what's next."

That clarity gives Oregon farmers and housing advocates an upper hand, Altoro said. Identifying a problem is the first step to solving it, which is just what Altoro said his agency can help do.

The USDA Rural Development deals with "everything rural," Altoro said. Agriculture, in this case, is a loose umbrella under which rural housing and community infrastructure fit.

Altoro's office deals specifically with housing in three different ways: through single-family home ownership loans, multi-family housing grants, and, occasionally, rental vouchers. It also helps fund "community facilities" like fire stations or schools -- any "infrastructure that provides community benefits," Altoro said.

"Put those together, that's all the components to a resilient community," he said.

In Oregon, USDA Rural Development oversees more than 40 programs and close to $500 million in investments per year, according to spokesperson Max Sprague.

Altoro visted Yamhill, Wasco, Deschutes and Wheeler counties. His visit included tours of on-farm housing facilities and meetings with farmers, developers, and housing advocacy nonprofits. He also spent time with Oregon tribal members.

He said the he goal of the trip was to gain a better understanding of "what's working and what's not working" for Oregon farmworker housing providers.

What's not working?

Oregonians told Altoro that cost of land is one of the biggest barriers to providing farmworker and low-income housing.

"It's crazy, like, before you even put a shovel in the ground ... the cost of land spiked over the years," Altoro said.

Even with land, building and maintaining housing is expensive. Farmers told Altoro that most of the resources for farmworker housing are being used for new construction projects, but renovation and rehabilitation cost money, too.

"It was healthy to hear on-farm people, orchardists, say 'don't forget about us,'" Altoro said.

The costs of labor and materials also are increasingly prohibitive, Altoro said.

Off-farm housing providers told Altoro they want more direct access to and communication with the agency. It's something Altoro said the federal government is prioritizing in all its agencies since President Joe Biden's 2021 executive order on "transforming federal customer experience."

The need for off-farm housing also is increasing. Most Oregon farmworkers - 84%, according to Oregon Law Center -permanently reside in the communities where they work.

"In farmworker housing, it's not just the farmworker," Altoro said. "We house families."

Plenty of families living in on-farm housing, Altoro said, but Oregon also is the third largest off-farm housing provider in the country.

Off-farm housing developers and nonprofits said the biggest challenges to housing developments happen long before projects break ground. Federal assistance should account for technical assistance and pre-development, which is the "riskiest part," Altoro said.

What is working?

Oregon has a solid foundation upon which to build and improve farmworker housing, Altoro said.

For one, there already is a "strong community" of people trying to come up with new solutions.

"I'm impressed with the collaboration from folks across industry types," Altoro said. "Folks are really trying to organize around innovation."

Oregon already has a "strong community" of stakeholders working to build and improve farmworker housing, Altoro said.

And Oregonians are clear about what they need.

One conversation stood out to Altoro.

He was talking about the language of affordable housing versus workforce housing. HUD does not distinguish between the two, but some housing authorities classify them differently based on income.

"Someone said something wonderful," Altoro recalled. "They said: 'farmworker housing is workforce housing. We try to bifurcate those. We say, 'those people over there working in farm labor, that's something different.' But it's exactly the same. This is the workforce that supports probably one of the most important things in our lives: access to food."

"That was a big 'aha' moment for me," Altoro said.

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: USDA Administrator talks Oregon farmworker housing