Grants to Help With Housing for Laborers

The Ventura County Community Foundation has awarded three local advocacy groups a total of $127,500 in grants to help develop housing projects in Oxnard and Santa Paula for farm workers and to promote the need for such developments.

Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., Habitat for Humanity and Ag Innovations Network received grants from the foundation’s Fund for Farm Worker Housing, established last year to help find housing solutions for agricultural laborers.

“This is the first time we have distributed funds to address farm worker housing, which is becoming more and more significant as housing prices go up and agriculture relies more on workers to pick their crops,” said Hugh Ralston, president of the nonprofit foundation.

The grants come at a time of increased focus by county farmers, advocates and leaders on affordable housing for low-income workers, particularly those in the region’s $1-billion-a-year agriculture industry. Rising rents, soaring home prices and recent lawsuits have raised awareness about the need for keeping farmers in business by providing their harvesters with homes.

“We’re coming up with innovative solutions to deal with the housing crisis and we believe this is an important first step,” Ralston said of the foundation’s grant program.

Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., which received a $52,500 grant, is developing 24 rental units for farm workers and their families in Santa Paula. The project is to be completed in 2006.

Habitat for Humanity received $30,000 to help build its Villa Cesar Chavez project, which will give two Oxnard farm workers and their families the opportunity to own a home.

The families will purchase the houses with 500 hours of “sweat equity.”

Ag Innovations Network, a local task force that promotes dialogue about the importance of maintaining and increasing the supply of farm worker housing, received $45,000 for community education and action programs.