By Guy Page
A bill introduced January 16 would require farmers to rent housing to workers hired through a proposed state-funded directory.
H810, establishing the Agricultural Workforce and Housing Directory, would require farmers participating in a state-operated employment directory to be landlords for their farm workers – including workers who are illegal immigrants.
Specifically the bill “proposes to require the Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets to establish and administer the Agricultural Workforce and Housing Directory, where a farm in Vermont could list available employment opportunities on that farm. Farms listing jobs on the Directory would be required to provide employees with affordable housing on the farm or off the farm.”
The bill does not distinguish between farm workers who are working legally in the United States and those who are here as “undocumented workers” AKA illegal immigrants.
Most hired farm-workers who live on farm are migrant workers, according to a 2021 report to a state housing board.
About 2,000 hired farmworkers in Vermont live in housing provided on or immediately adjacent to the farm. The majority of on-farm housing is connected to dairy farms, according to a 2021 report to the Vermont Housing Conservation Board. Well over half of hired farmworkers who live on-farm are migrant workers. Aside from those contracted through the federal H-2A program to work seasonally, the overwhelming number of migrant workers lack the required authorizations to work in the US.
The housing directory would be free to the user, and would be established with a $50,000 allocation in next year’s state budget. “Housing provided under this section shall be safe, clean, and fit for human habitation and shall comply with the requirements of applicable building, housing, and health regulations. A farm operator shall be required to comply with this subsection only if the operator is providing the housing to an employee as the landlord. Any housing under this section shall be governed by the requirements for residential rental agreement under 9 V.S.A chapter 137,” the bill states.
Lead sponsors of H810 are Rep. Esme Cole and Robert “Bobby” Farlice-Rubio. Other sponsors are Reps. Peter Anthony, Sarah “Sarita” Austin, Tesha Buss, Melanie Carpenter, Seth Chase Leonora Dodge, Caleb Elder, Golrang Garofano, Leslie Goldman, Rodney Graham, Josie Leavitt, Jed Lipski, Brian Minier, John O’Brien, Henry Pearl, Mike Rice, Heather Surprenant, David Templeman, Dara Torre, Dane Whitman, and Jonathan Williams.
Several sponsors – including Graham, O’Brien, Pearl, and Surprenant – are or have been working farmers. Graham is the only GOP co-sponsor. Cole also has co-sponsored a bill requiring the state to offer professional licensing regardless of immigration status.
The State of Vermont offers extensive employment and hiring assistance to both employers and would-be employees, through the Vermont Department of Labor. For example, the DOL Joblink is an interactive ‘jobs board’ connecting workers and employers.
But neither DOL nor any other government employment assistance program known to VDC require participating employers to provide employee housing as a condition of their participation.
The bill does not appeal to Agriculture committee member Charles Wilson (R-Lyndon). “H.810 Proposes to require (actually force) the Secretary of Agriculture, Food & Markets to establish and administer an agricultural work force ( whoever they may be) and Housing Directory to effectively cause farmers be required to provide employees with affordable housing on or off the farm,” Wilson said in a recent statement. “What they intentionally leave out, is that this is all at taxpayer’s expense! Socialism. This is at a time when Vermont cannot adjust the State budget.”