Dozens of community members talked housing and farming needs at the city’s first of five forums regarding H-2A on June 14.
The forums, which will be hosted by various city and county officials throughout the next five months, are the city’s effort to further understand the H-2A program, its importance to the region’s agricultural operations, and its potential impacts on residential neighborhoods.
The federal H-2A program, which allows farmers to bring vetted nonimmigrant workers into the U.S. to provide much-needed agricultural labor for a limited time, was pushed to the city’s spotlight in March, when several residents complained about the program’s growing presence in Santa Maria’s residential neighborhoods.
Complaints of overcrowding and displacement sparked a city investigation into the issue and an urgency ordinance prohibiting property owners from housing more than six H-2A guest workers in units located in single-family and medium-density residential zoning districts was passed unanimously by the Santa Maria City Council on March 20.
The sudden vote, which city officials said was an effort to preserve residential housing for long-term residents, garnered significant backlash from affiliates of the local agricultural industry, many of whom felt the decision seemed rushed and under researched. After the City Council voted on April 17 not to extend the ordinance, it expired on May 4.
Now, the city is slowing down.
At the June 14 forum, Assistant City Attorney Philip Sinco presented a detailed overview of the H-2A program itself: the application process, worker vetting, annual inspections, and the housing requirements placed on H-2A dwellings.
During the 2016-17 fiscal year, Sinco said 2,691 H-2A workers were housed in Santa Barbara County. Roughly 1,700 of those were housed in Santa Maria, he said. About 900 workers were housed in residential neighborhoods and another 800 were housed in reconfigured hotels or motels.
A key topic of the meeting was whether H-2A workers should be housed in residential neighborhoods, and other areas where H-2A housing could be better utilized.
“I don’t think anyone is arguing that [H-2A] shouldn’t be here,” Sinco said in response to a written question asking why the city seems opposed to the H-2A program. “I believe that the consensus is H-2A may not be an appropriate use in the [residential] neighborhoods.”
H-2A employers must provide 50 square feet of sleeping space per employee, three catered meals a day or a fully equipped kitchen, laundry facilities, ladders, fire extinguishers, and bathrooms with at least one showerhead per 10 workers, Sinco said.
While farmers and growers have argued that those requirements are stringent and heavily regulated, Santa Maria resident Gale McNeeley said at the meeting that his 2,100-square-foot Carriage District home could technically house 20 H-2A workers.
“We have enough space, we have two shower heads,” McNeeley said. “Is this what we want from the city?”
Several other attendees echoed McNeeley’s sentiments, and shared stories and concerns of overcrowding and parking issues in residential neighborhoods housing H-2A workers. Others said they felt unsafe living near H-2A dwellings.
Assistant City Attorney Sinco said the city is working to address those issues, and city officials hope to encourage hotel owners to house more H-2A workers in the near future.
But when it comes to safety, Sinco said H-2A workers have proven to be law-abiding neighbors. Sinco referenced a hotel that he said once accumulated an average of 300 calls for law enforcement service each month–that’s 10 calls a day.
“There were stabbings, and beatings, and prostitution, and drug dealing,” Sinco said at the meeting, until a farmer purchased the hotel.
“It’s now H-2A housing and we have no calls for service,” Sinco said. “And that pattern has been repeated over and over in the city.”
George Adam, a Santa Maria-based grower who uses the H-2A program, also piped up and said that because transportation is provided to workers by employers, parking shouldn’t be an issue. And after members of local advocacy groups said that farmworkers need to live within city limits, where various services are easily accessible, Adam dismissed that as a non issue.
“Communication being the way it is today–you know, everyone has a cellphone and we have a lot of training that has all of the social justice issues that everything else does,” Adam said. “Believe me, [H-2A workers are] pretty well informed.”
The comment brought up another key question: Why aren’t H-2A workers being housed in unincorporated areas?
The answer is complex, according to Dan Klemann, deputy director of the Santa Barbara County Long Range Planning Division, who discussed the county’s role in easing the region’s overall housing problems at the meeting.
Although the county lacks any real housing programs dedicated specifically to H-2A, Klemann said his department works to provide a variety of housing options in unincorporated areas, which can be a challenge.
A number of state regulations discourage, and sometimes prohibit, urban sprawl into unincorporated areas, he said, with the goal of conserving agricultural land and open spaces. The state’s other goal, Klemann said, is to reduce commuter travel and thus carbon emissions.
But in Santa Barbara County, it can be difficult to find more space for housing in the city limits that already exist. That, he said, is impacting everyone from H-2A workers to short-term vacation renters.
“Really this is a housing scarcity problem,” Klemann said. “It’s not something unique to the H-2A program.”
Information on the city’s next H-2A forum will be released later this month.
This article appears in Jun 21-28, 2018.
