According to Ed Flores, faculty director of the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, the 50-year-old housing qualifications for migrants are outdated. They were set up for a vastly different migrant population, one primarily made up of men who were single or whose families remained in Mexico. To qualify for the housing, most farmworkers living at the centers must move at least 50 miles away when they shut down during the winter and early spring. The distance rule was established to ensure those living in migrant housing were truly migratory.
Most of the state’s farmworkers no longer migrate. About 92% were settled during fiscal years 2019-2020, up from 57% in 1989-1990, according to U.S. Department of Labor data. The reduction reflects governmental and demographic changes. Flores said women with families, like Perez-Guzman, are now also part of the farm labor work force.
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