This hidden housing crisis threatens the future of farming
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 เม.ย. 2023
- The mass shooting in Half Moon Bay exposed deplorable living conditions that some farmworkers endure. This hidden housing crisis threatens the future of farming. We invite you to watch, "Hidden Crisis: Tragedy in Half Moon Bay," where we explain why and explore what's being done to find a solution. abc7ne.ws/3Udbu40
This is a reflection of GREED. The GREED for more money and GREED for more comfort. Our society has become a place where more and more people only care about MORE money and MORE comfort for themselves at the expense of everyone else and the planet. For them, as long as I'm RICH or I'm COMFORTABLE, everything and everyone else doesn't matter if they suffer... This philosophy permeates all aspects of our life...
Word. NotBest
It's the same situation here in Britain.
Well said. Undeniable facts.
LiG...when I heard that white man, well dressed, he charges all the way to $1700 a month for these absolute junk shacks, my blood boils....exploitation that is in some ways worse than slavery was 200 years ago. This is outrageous.
@@christianmama2441 he seemed nice enough but $1700 is really unfair and way too much
I love that California reported having the largest surplus in US history last year, yet we have the same issues across every part of the state in terms of housing. None of these folks in office have to deal with these issues otherwise it would be a bigger priority. Horrible all the way around and eventually the wealthy will have to deal with it too
Chavez had worked so hard to address these issues 50 years ago in Santa Clara valley and throughout the state. Housing in Napa valley is provided for many workers. We can provide better places and environments..but it takes coordination, money, and activists, and the owners of the land and farms resources and unity. Thank you for your video and reporting…how can the average citizen help?
complain to local state fed reps
@@nicholasthompson7690 unfortunately that rarely works
Farm workers are essential workers without these workers there would be no food on the table.
For the San Mateo County Supervisors to say that they don’t have the resources is ludicrous. A $750K amount can build 4 stores dorms with very nice cupboards, and shared bathroom facilities on each floor Have double decker beds for families. These forms should be functionally designed so as not to waste space. There could be at least 2 common canteens/kitchens where everyone have communal foods, where everyone pitches in to cook, to wash up, to take turns with cleaning, decent lounges for Tv, reading, indoor games like table tennis, dart boards, chest, etc areas. Outside can have a soccer or other games field. It doesn’t have to be everyone has a unit. I’ve seen terrific form style housing where everyone has a comfortable bed. They do their own weekly laundry. These supervisors really are doing nothing and should be fired for not thinking creatively to solve this housing problems for farmers and their workers.
In the old days the farmers had farm labor camps made up of little cabins.
They still have some where I live
Illegal labor creates problems like this and promotes more.
agreed but we dont want to talk about the illegals, we just want to box all latinx as farmers when theres chinese too!
Our whole nation needs more affordable housing. Not just the Farm Workers. The US has the highest rate of Homelessness in the world. Yet we are the richest nation in the world. It looks like Landlord Greed to me.
You obviously haven’t travelled around much.
They are being exploited though. What white person would work 16 hour days of back breaking work in the sun day after day for half the minimum wage?. no health insurance, no safety regulations etc.
Homes were made for banks not people. Loans make money everyone needs a home
There’s always an idiot that opens their mouth
So advocate for it
It’s a crazy system, as we look down upon those who had it easy and have not had struggles like we do. But then we strive to give our children that same future. Perplexing.
Corruption of Communism
I don't think anyone looks upon those with good fortune, it's just those with good fortune have to be reminded they're fortunate
@@sir.richardpound why, so people can play victim?
@@John-209 so they’re reminded of their fortune… wut?
John, are you comparing your struggles to the migrant farm workers featured in this news segment?
They don’t need housing, they need seasonal camps with showers, mess halls and bunks you rent so these workers can actually save money to send back to their families.
Exactly... They're all sending their money back to Mexico to build lives for their families there and retire... 1/2 of them are illegal... It's hard for me to have a lot of empathy here... What are we supposed to build taxpayer funded condos and allow them to live rent free? $300 dollars for a bed in a safe space sounds nice to me. I actually wish I could find that... Come down to DTLA and witness the 10's of thousands of homeless people, a majority of them American Citizens and many are veterans and elderly... What about them? These people chose this life. I'm sure many of them could easily go back to their country of origin if they so please. Many of them will when they retire.
The whole thing's illegal the owners and the workers undocumented
💯✅
Yes, absolutely!
We need sesonal workers from here,like it used to be years ago.,you make the money here, you keep the money here.. ,we need to be keeping our own economy floating.,if you quit allowing these people to send
Money home,, believe me , they would move on., But that don't guarantee any workers, that's just the harsh reality, it's a bad deal all the way around. When I was young,they used to let school kids work the crops.
None of this is a secret to Local’s. In any of the complaints get swept under the rug by the district attorney and no lawyers will take any cases for these farmworkers.. it’s one of those quiet secrets you don’t talk about in the legal system.
The cities and counties are responsible for the completed land prices because they want more tax dollars by development .
Flat piece of farmland that grows any kind of fruit or vegetable, does not bringing the kind of tax dollar revenues as housing development in strip malls.
It’s that simple case of all the dollars $$$
And you will know where all the problems lie .
And when that rich fertile soil, what little we have less in the flatlands of California, the farmer who is bankrupt . There’s a half a dozen multi millionaire housing. Developers are just drooling like vultures watching that land..
Sometimes they get on the board of supervisors and other members of persuasion for cities and counties to change the zoning boundaries to force farms to go out of business . These vultures may take away some of the water rights or benefits of a farm that have to do with either electricity, land-use or water use in force the small farmer to go out of business and sell out to either a larger farm or a land developer..
My family has been in California on the one side of the family before california was california. It was still part of Mexico. . We are very used to having our land taken away from us when we were large, farmers and cattle ranchers.. somebody came into our country, our land, and told us we no longer belong there. This is now our land, and took it away from us..
And then, again, during World War I land was promised to military men in different groups to go to undeveloped parts of California, and land grants were given to them for large sections of land for farming in development to the soldiers land rights.
They were told this land will always be your land .
But then the government once again, change the rules, and took the land away from the families of the soldiers, who this land was promise to . And these were farmers, who lost everything again for development.
This is a never ending cycle, including the workers who work for them .
The wealth income inequality is crazy to me. A farm worker is just as valuable to society if not more than a Hollywood actor.
OMG...SOooo much more than an actor!!
that was one of the consequences if you want cheap fruit and veggies
I have an idea - NO MORE INVESMENT HOUSES FOR THE SUPER RICH GOING UNUSED! I left this area because there were no housing options for the younger generation.
thats why I left westchester county ny. no one wants new housing in my hometown. theyre stuck up ppl who see the poor and low income as down trodden.
It's disgusting.
There are a lot of people with jobs that are not farm workers that are living out of Vans and in "pods" (something like a Tokyo pod hotel) with community areas in high density shared housing. The housing crises is bad. And yet, I saw a news blip the other day naming the number of empty housing units in San Francisco and it was kinda shocking. It was way more than the number of homeless people. They did say those were mostly vacation units. Not that that made me feel much better. It keeps haunting me and I wonder. I see more vans etc. on the road around every day. Trailers and RVs are designed to leak early on and not really a great value, but destitute people can sometimes get them cheap for that very reason. Utility cargo trailer conversions are better bang for buck.
A lot of people are forced to live in cars/vans, like you said with jobs. Rent is outrageous here. Something needs to happen in the Bay Area.
People take living units off the market to rent out as air b&b's, yet local people can't find a place to live.
Housing and healthcare should be rights. This is what it looks like when people treat housing as investment opportunities/assets instead of a minimumly required thing to live your life.
But that's socialism. So thoughts and prayers I guess
ALOT of areas aren't safe, I bet if you went to detroit, chicago, not newyork city, you could easily find a affordable house but you're at a extremely high risk of death, robbery, drug related crimes. So good areas aren't easy to find for the average us worker.
Empty units can be taken as a write off. No need to drop the price.
What kind of profit do these farmers make?Couldn't they afford to give their full time workers decent housing? Many, many farmers do this in other places. You can move houses, get decent trailers, and let them live in them year round even if there is not full time work year round, and have them help with maintenance. You already own the land, you do not have to spend a fortune to make a decent home on it. I am really curious whether the San Mateo farms are so much less profitable than what I am used to.
From half moon all the way down to sandcity-monterrey is in this situation as labor.
After this winters kick, it's going to be a tough couple years in repair, production & bills.
A local artichoke if produced, will be 7.oo
And the farmer will still loose the land to the state.
Years ago we had more farmland, cheaper housing and food was much cheaper. Today the balance is changing.
Also years ago I knew a u.s. born white girl from a nice family in that area who worked in farm fields to save money for college.
They still do in Australia 🦘!
He is taking all he pays them back in rent. How can these people ever get ahead?
They get a new job or stop coming illegally to this country. That's how you get ahead.
they cant
@@fallenbeforefiona9000 How is this a solution?
All these empty malls and they can’t find solve the housing issues? If you can’t use your building after closing down, then tear it down to give back to the animals or housing. These buildings need to use or teared down. I say pass a law to either get rid of unused buildings or used them for housing or other purposes but not just sit there empty and continue to destroy the lands elsewhere when these buildings are available
Nuisance Newsome has the nerves to go around bad mouthing Florida, he should clean his own house, Commiefornia!!!!!
Thank you for reporting on this serious local issue. I hope things can one day change for the better in the Bay Area.
was up in california dairy country was shocked at the living conditions looked like depression dustbowl era. after all the tv commercials bragging about "happy cows" how about happy workers?? they take advantage of workers afraid of deportation
We consume the milk from the cows, so those are the things we want stress free. The workers? eh... that's to be expected for a workforce that undercuts others to get jobs.
@@Mike__B its the farm owners they undercut the workers. If they wanted to pay better, they could.
@@episdosas9949 yes and no. The argument is "this is work no 'Americans' want to do" where as to be honest it's no work Americans want to do at the pay rate they offer, so yeah in that regards the farm owners want a cheap workforce but honestly most companies would if they could get away with it. Second is the work force is willing to do the work for this cheap, so they're creating a situation where farm owners don't have to pay more because there are plenty of people willing to do the work for cheap and they get away with because they are willing to live in "squalor" to do so even if it is undesirable.
I'm not sure what the situation is in Half Moon Bay but other places farmers are allowed to use "migrant workers" from other countries and pay them at a rate that's lower than required US wage laws. So in that regard the government itself allows for this to go on. And if the workers are illegal immigrants who can't legally work in the US, then yeah that's another avenue to repress wages.
That said don't assume that farm owners could pay more if they wanted to do so. Some of them yes they could, but not everyone, there is not a huge profit margin to farming, doubly so when you have companies like John Deere and Monsanto with a stranglehold over the entire industry. And that goes double for companies that buy directly from the farms and often have changing requirements that requires a constant influx of cash.
"Happy Cows" is a lie. Read up on it. It is all marketing. I did my research and was shocked.
Conditions are worse back home. Imagine how bad it is in their native countries.
If they are unhappy here, why don’t they go back to their countries?
After a long hard day of physical labor and exposure to all conditions of weather, these workers NEED a safe, dry, warm place to rest. Our country is so messed up. I pray for solutions.
No resources that's interesting.. the county has spent millions on purchasing multiple hotels to house the "homeless" who continue to put a strain on community resources. While these people all show up and work hard every day.
Regarding the high cost of rent is there some way to get the rent reduced with prefabs?
Thank you for your helpful and informative videos!
Ain’t no way! This is the beginning of the end! ✝️
Of course there is. Someone just has to make it happen.
Sad state of affairs
Good reporting
The Environmental Health Department and planning commission will not allow new building permits due to flood plains and on-site waste water septic systems restrictions. Historically San Mateo County was the suburbs of the wealthy San Francisco business men. The land was originally owned by Mexico land grant owners. After 1850, the majority or the Mexican land owners were driven out.
Another example of legal slavery, it’s everywhere just open your eyes.
Employer should pay workers for housing. That’s an instant write off for them.
that farmer/landlord is an amazing example of the kind of people we need. small scale, affordable, and respectable. we need good, livable housing for all people. Everyone deserves a roof to sleep under, even if the bourgeoise-the most classist class- look down on those who live there and the conditions they can afford.
Those who judge are as deplorable as the conditions they criticize.
Horrific living conditions. They should fine the farm owners!!!😢😢😢
Their shed is probably still better than living in a car like I have been for years in San Mateo county
Looks like returning to Mexico/Central America might be the best option for these workers.
Its not.
Wow that is how mad you are because they are taking your job. No wait are you still in your mom's basement.
How is that an option?
Those poor farm workers see other people on the street and figure this is survival
1:50 that pile of wood and plastic is a 2 million $ "house" in California.
I'm curious why county officials say that San Mateo county doesn't have the money to fix this problem. This problem should be put on the company's shoulders, not the county. These are large agricultural companies who can well afford to provide proper housing for their workers. The smaller farms should be able to get assistance if necessary for employee housing, but the big companies can easily afford to do it they just don't want to.
I know the farmers and ranchers are subject to market demands and pricing, but I'm curious about the profit margins for the owners, and what their net income is versus their workers. Might it be reasonable to pay workers more (something like a living wage for the region)? Maybe margins are fairly narrow and that doesn't make sense... it would be good data to have for a story like this.
Shooting was a direct reaction or retaliation for shooting in a dance studio in Los Angeles... Days before..
For migrants, Imagine how bad it is in their native homes to put up with this rather than go back.
Another tragedy. Until the wealthy company owners are sent to prison for these abuses, nothing will change.
But I'm sure that miniscule petty fine that they'll be assigned will force them to completely change their behavior.
Over 100 years of activism and nothing for farmworkers has changed. Not a single person from the governor on down to the lowliest rep cares about these people.
Money talks and in this state only money matters. These people don't count. They're disposable. Plain and simple.
Even FDR, a great man in many ways, made some crucial mistakes- one of them being intentionally leaving farm workers out of the New Deal. You would think by now however, we could have rectified that injustice.
Governors are petty dictators, they can do a lot all by themselves. Newsom could do this today. He won't of course. Why would the plight of lowly immigrant workers trouble him? He is far from the only one however. This is been a bipartisan issue of complete apathy and neglect forever.
If a hyper-aggressive Farm Labor Act and Protection bill was drafted today, exactly how many of the legislature would sign it???
I'd wager less than half at best. The fact is nobody in public capacity cares about these people.
Politicians on both sides take their payoffs from the corporate bosses and continue looking the other way. I don't know what it's going to take to change this.
Human rights are still not fully enumerated under United States law and labor rights most definitely aren't. We are still very much a second world developing nation. We're only a first world nation in parts.
All it takes is for State lawmakers to go after the heads of these wealthy companies but they won't. Why would they ever bite the hand that feeds them???
So when you have that unholy alliance between openly corrupt government, a bought-and-paid-for government by and for the wealthy elite and the wealthy corporations, then the corporations know they can get away with anything and they do.
Both red-blue wall Street parties are equally guilty of this. They're trash and have to go. Only completely new outside political parties who are committed to refuse corruption could change this.
Diversity is our strength
Blame the federal tax code that puts the burden on working people and not the rich.
Yeah it's called maintenance and buildings and campers and whatever you have to sleep in it has to have regular maintenance leaving this life ain't free
.wow. very nice production.
Call Randy Jones incredible tiny homes affordable housing will be delivered and set up the best deal nationwide.Built correctly
It's not just the coast, but anywhere there is a farm
This is NOT a story about "the high cost of housing"! This is a story about rich employers ABUSING migrant workers! And about government officials who won't enforce housing standards laws. USE YOUR EYES.
So much greed. We would all be happy to pay less and it just never happens
I seem to remember some of the victim were elderly Chinese people. Why didn't you interview those Chinese workers for this report?
It doesn’t fit the narrative they are trying to push.
Cuz interviewers don't speak chinese
@@peaceofficer01 hm... translators??
Because the Chinese killer didn’t need an interview. Hispanics need the help more.
@@rembleekah8722 I said victims. Learn to read.
in China, large employers provide a wage plus housing and meals adjacent to the factories.
Oh Dear, Oh My, I had no idea that the farmworkers live in such poverty, why aren't they moving back to their home countries? Oh wait a ;minute, it is better here than where they came from right? The value of every persons' labor is dependent on supply and demand! Where has Department of Labor in California been all these decades? Looking the other way? Still at least they have a place to live unlike the unhoused.
3rd world mentality of americans at play.. Normally you build the bunk houses on your farm for your workers to stay when they harvest and provide 3 meals for the work.. They work better and come back the next harvest..
Who are you kidding? The wages are criminal. They should be paying people 4 times the rent for one bedroom apartment local commute. This means that one weeks pay is equal to one months rent for one bedroom apartment local commute. This is the legal minimum wage under the minimum wage act. In California this means the real minimum wage is not a transient wage or homeless wage but based on the local housing cost. It is illegal to force people to rescue workers from criminal wages. . 4XR is legal minimum wage one weeks pay is equal to the rent for one bedroom apartment local commute or the wages are illegal. A transient wage or homeless wage is less than 4 times the rent for one bedroom apartment. A landlord rightfully expects 4 times the rent as enough income to reliably pay the rent based on experience and normal business practices. The wages that dont match the normal business practices are illegal wages and fue for arrest and trial.
What the gov't needs to "allow" - in farming communities - is "small" housing (maybe like sleeping Pods in Japan) that farmers can afford. Otherwise, they have no place to live. AND, if the farmer owner pays them high salaries like in the tech industry, then how can the owner survive?!? This is a dilemma that can only to solved by ALLOWING small houses to be built. Living in a shed size house (150sq ft) is ENOUGH for one person as long as it is safe, equipped with installation, and electricity. After all, it is just a place to sleep and rest from the cold or heat. It's better than sleeping on the street or sleeping in cars. The gov't needs to wake up and be FLEXIBLE. Homelessness is caused by the gov't stubbornness on housing rules!!!
Enforce affordable housing for everyone in the county, especially farmworkers, and enforce better pay and labor standards for all farmworkers.
Politicians are disgusting because they see the tragedy that out-of-control landlord demons are causing and they refuse to lift a finger to stop it.
If you like and enjoy your life, don't go looking into labor camps.
??
At least tiny homes should be a possibility for some just start something too much talking not enough action
Funny how most of the farming here is aimed at people that eat "healthy" and look for organic stuff. Yet they give a blind eye to these conditions. Trickle-down poverty...
Its happening in Santa Barbara and Carpentaria. from what I have seen. The agricultural workers are like living is squalor and abuse.
Mr. Burns , you and your financial records need to be investigated by a forensic audit.
I'm sure you, your wife, sons, daughters, and grandchildren have lived very well in bay area.
Come to this country legally and then get a real job.
legally? it can take yrs to become legal
The story centers around that shooting yet there were few (if any) interviews with Asian farm workers.
Farmers and agriculture have to come to a realization that they have a legal responsibility to provide livable working conditions for farm workers. RVs are a possible solution because they can be acquired used inexpensively and require only parking space and utility hookups (RV Parks).
This is a good idea
If you think food prices are high now, wait until your idea is implemented.
Poor doesn’t mean filthy and most of these people like to live in filthy conditions that make matters worst..
Thank Gavin Newsom, he rather go to photo ops with celebrities than do his job. 😅😅
Welcome to Techno Feudalism Capitalism's final form.
❤I lived in a farm labor camp when immigration use to chase people around while they were relaxing tired from picking asparagus onions cherry and apples 😢please for God's sake help them so people can eat......
Renters in general don't matter in this state, or anywhere else.
Since we have no way to force our will, at least for now, we're subject to what the landlord lobby wants, which is outrageous, debt slavery level rent.
No mayor, no representative, and certainly not the governor is doing a goddamn thing to stop it because like everything else they take their payoffs from the landlord lobby and look the other way. It's a tired old refrain that's getting more tiresome by the minute.
Only new lawmakers from outside parties who put people before profits and exploitation could change this.
Get the government involved and they will go from poor living conditions to no place to live. However bad these living conditions are as seen through USA eyes they are probably equal to or better than those lived in back in their home country.
Ranchers used to provide a bunkhouse for their help
Why can't the billionaire tech philanthropist foot the bills no strings attached
moving to Delaware for free housing, food, and working under the table for cash - see it every day - driving a Lexus
That farmer is so cool!
When my family worked in the fields we used to live the same way and a lot of time we used to live in condam house .
Was the condom house made out of rubber?
The area needs affordable housing and the agency builds suburb like housing. Suburbs are not cheap to build or maintain!!. Housing agencies, please, density, density, density. You can have density and pretty good housing, those two are not mutually exclusive.
$1,200 to $1,170 is way too much rent - this guy is greedy
San Mateo is the worst county in the country to their homeless
worst?
They can probably find better housing in Mexico, and close to the working farms.
Another important detail is that the 95% of all the workers are sending more that the 60% of their earning money to their country, they are here suffering because they want to help the family back home.
That mean that from the salary they receive just a portion is for their room and food. They need and deserved HELP, PLEASE.
FARMING WORKERS LIVE FROM DREAMS, SOME TIME THEY NEVER GET THE DREAM THEY DREAM, BUT IN MEIN TIME THE QUALITY OF TIME IS SO LOW, this is USA, the best country in the world, full of opportunities, ???
1929 is finally here the collapse is coming
Lol
America should be ashamed, who owns these farms? Let's see them. This is why this nation is going down, greed ,greed ,greed. America will never never never change.
WHITE
I live here in eastern wash.years ago our community made farm labor housing , and nobody wanted to rent them.they wanted to live along the river banks and send there money home.even when they make money,sometimes it's not in favor of helping the community where you work.
@@brendawolfe6852 :/
It's amazing how the wokers are all over giving a dope fiend 3 hots and a cot. but the folks who provide us with food? F them, right...
---A baby is born, grows up, and in the second grade wants to be a firefighter, then in the fifth grade changes their mind and hopes to become a dope fiend?
---In high school they make sure to get in that car accident and break their leg so they can get prescription opioids to get addicted to.
---Closing in on that dream, now they can't afford opioids off the street anymore, gotta switch to heroine.
--- Made it to goal, officially a dope fiend!!
---God forbid someone tries to help him, his mom has no idea where he is, just passes his fifth grade class photo everytime she walks down the stairs in the morning.
---But ya, F them right?
So sad. There are creative ways to raise money for those who live in deplorable conditions. new stoves, refrigerators, bunk beds, new mattresses, chairs dinning area furniture. Rich people up and down that coast should give and alot will go a long way for those dedicated farmers.
Why just people on the coast???
Time to ask for a raise.
When are we going to realize that it's morally unacceptable to allow landlords to charge huge rents??? How is anyone supposed to get out of poverty when the landlord takes 80% of your paycheck?
It's called slavery
We need to allow farm workers to legally travel back and forth to their home country. Not being able to see your own children for decades is cruel and bad for their health and mental health.
God forbid we give dedicated workers citizenship!
Go complain to your fed reps
@@nicholasthompson7690 we can also have discussions. That is something people do to create the change they want to see in the world
You have to call out these violations. Make the penalty against the employers really harsh financially. Sure, some workers will be fired and prices will likely go up. But it beats letting them get away with modern versions of serfdoms.
I don’t buy the argument that if you report them, people will lose jobs and everyone is worse off. Reality is if it’s too expensive to farm in one area, then the farming will move to other areas. Yes, the workers will have to move too, but that is how markets work. You cannot force markets to let you stay in one area if operating in that area is not financially viable.
Concord Farms didn't have deplorable living conditions. They had two apartments, a bathroom, a legit kitchen, paid minimum wage but always gave breaks and paid overtime.
Do you have rabbits?
@@Rabbit23 no, why?
What is the status of the HMB killer Zhao?
house price in us is inadequate.
depends where
We all have to come together and build them a least tiny homes to live in because they are the backbone of our tables am sure those farmers have enough land to have tiny homes built for all their workers😢😢😢
Guy showing farm workers residents with Corvette and Dodge muscle cars. Really?
Thing is the rich folks that live there and the companies that benefit from these workers KNOW about this. They don’t care. But the rest of us should?
Well, somebody has too.
@@douglasscott5623 yeah and it should be them
There should be dedicated housing for farm workers (free or low cost as part of their pay). And if you stop working on the farm, you need to leave to free up the space for another farm worker. Everyone wants free or cheap rent, but it needs to serve a purpose.
He still took innocent lives, hardworking coworkers who were living in the same situation. He drove to another location to take more innocent lives who weren't driven to crimes like him.
😢
It's just basic that thing should be right for these hard-working citizens of this country they're decent people they're hard-working people and we should take care of them this is a very rich country and there's no reason why we should not God bless America in God we trust in Jesus name amen