Despite pervasive virus spread, few farmworkers isolate in California’s free COVID-19 hotel rooms. Many fear that the program could open them up to job loss, deportation or problems with citizenship or residency cases.
— Los Angeles Times - 21 Dec 2020
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Jackie Botts at CalMatters.org, Kate Cimini at The Salinas Californian, and Georgia Gee at The Brown Institute for Media Innnovation's Documenting COVID-19 Project, reported Saturday that barely 80 out of California’s over 800,000 farmworkers have quarantined or isolated in Housing for the Harvest hotel rooms since Gov. Newsom’s July 24 call for an “abundant mindset” launching this protection for these utterly essential workers, and thereby, all Californians.
The governor was inspired by a relatively successful program that the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California mounted in Monterey County in April which ...
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… temporarily housed 401 farmworkers and their dependents. It expanded to Yuma, Ariz. and the Imperial Valley in early November, housing another 50 between the two new sites.
It “likely limited the potential for large, cluster outbreaks,” said the association’s president, Chris Valadez, who cited the program’s lack of barriers as reason for its comparatively high number of guests.
Grower-Shipper’s program was spurred by dire conditions among the region’s farmworkers, many of whom live in overcrowded homes … some [facing] faced threat of eviction from their landlords.
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Purdue University estimates that over 16,500 California farmworkers have since fallen ill from COVID-19.
UCBerkeley’s July-Nov 2020 “PREVALENCE AND PREDICTORS OF SARS-COV-2 INFECTION AMONG FARMWORKERS IN MONTEREY COUNTY, CA” Summary Report (pdf, 25 pp.) found that among responding Salinas Valley farmworkers, antibody tests showed one in five to have contracted COVID-19 and 43% had nowhere to isolate.
An “overcrowded home” is defined as having more people than rooms, and a CalMatters analysis of census data found about 40% of Californians living with an agricultural or food processing worker live in that kind of household. But besides other fears about using the program is worry over leaving their children and elders fending for themselves —family separation— and the spectre of battling a deadly disease all alone.
In Riverside, a positive-tested worker with his own truck self-quarantined in it, as the best compromise he could accept at the time, parking at distance from people, his family bringing food to leave for him. Eventually, he did enroll, but as of the report date was the sole program utilizer in that county.
Program staff brought him three meals a day and a $2,000 check to cover lost wages.
Program organizers and farmworker organizations find that most farmworkers are instead
flocking to call centers, financial assistance and in-home isolation resources that counties and nonprofits have quickly scaffolded around the self-quarantining program, on their own dime.
<big>California farmworkers in fire season.</big>
Although response is low, those who do utilize the program are developing confidence enough to remain as long as their needs require, rather than too briefly. But the central obstacle remains: lack of cultural competence within the program, and an ineffective state message of safety in trusting the program.
Johns Hopkins Public Health Associate Professor Dr. Stefan Baral lauded California for providing the rooms given that crowded housing is “probably your best global predictor of COVID” transmission. But Baral, who has studied crowded housing and COVID-19 among Latinos, counseled that the success of the program going forward depended on administrators consulting farmworkers to improve its design.
Left uninvolved, farmworker community organizations now have to battle the resultant issues they could have helped resolve upfront.
Among the issues, federal reimbursement for the rooms requires a positive test or physician’s referral, but California farmworkers are prone to be uninsured, roughly 60% are undocumented, and healthcare is often avoided for fear of being billed unaffordably on top of the other trust issues, even on rare occasions of available free mobile testing. Some community workers advocate for hotel funding and meals to be turned over to farmworkers directly, as has sometimes been optimal with entire families exposed or infected, to minimize hardship and maximize benefit.
From the California Housing for the Harvest webpage
offers temporary hotel housing to agricultural workers who need to isolate due to COVID-19. It helps positive or exposed workers protect their loved ones and coworkers by giving them a space to self-isolate.
Farm and food processing workers play an essential role in maintaining our food supply. But some who need to self-isolate are finding it difficult due to their housing situation.
How does the program work?
The State books hotel rooms in participating counties for workers who need to self-isolate for up to 14 days. The State coordinates with local administrators who manage the program.
Locally-funded administrators:
- Serve as primary point of contact with workers who need isolation housing
- Verify participant eligibility
- Coordinate with the State to book rooms
- Provide services at the hotel site including transportation, meals and wellness checks
- Ensure services are provided in the participant’s language, and
- Collect data required for FEMA reimbursement.
Local administrators are identified in coordination with the State government. They may be a county or city agency, tribe, non-profit organization, or a philanthropic organization.
Who qualifies?
Participants must meet these criteria:
- Work in California food processing or agriculture
- Meet FEMA non-congregate sheltering criteria (PDF) for COVID-19:
- Have tested positive, or
- Been exposed as documented by a public health official or medical health professional
- Be unable to self-isolate at home
How can I get a hotel room? … by contacting the administrator in your area:
- Fresno County Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission
(559) 710-2000 thehealthyharvest.org or cosechasana.org
Info flyer: English, Español
- Imperial County Vo Neighborhood Medical Clinic
(442) 283-0198 Info flyer: English, Español
- Kern County Community Action Partnership of Kern (CAPK)
Call 211 Info flyer: English, Español
- Kings County Kings Community Action Organization
(559) 710-2000 thehealthyharvest.org or cosechasana.org
Info flyer: English, Español
- Madera County Central Valley Opportunity Center (CVOC)
(559) 710-2000 thehealthyharvest.org or cosechasana.org
Info flyer: English, Español
- Riverside County TODEC Legal Center
(888) 863-3291 campo@todec.org Info flyer: English, Español
- Sacramento County La Familia Counseling Center
(916) 452-3601 Info flyer: English, Español
- San Joaquin County Catholic Charities / Community Foundation of San Joaquin (209) 469-1120 harvest@ccstockton.org Info flyer: English, Español
- San Luis Obispo County (805) 781-1061
EOC-Lodging@co.slo.us Info flyer: English, Español
- Santa Barbara County Family Service Agency
(805) 325-5341 Info flyer: English, Español
- Stanislaus County (209) 558-7535 Info flyer: English, Español
- Tulare County Proteus, Inc.(559) 710-2000
thehealthyharvest.org or cosechasana.org Info flyer: English, Español
- Yolo County (833) 965-6268 Info flyer: English, Español
More counties may be added to the program.
Where is this program available?
Initial efforts will focus on the Central Valley, Central Coast, and Imperial Valley regions. These are the regions with the highest number of agricultural workers. It will expand as other counties or regions with this population opt in.
How can my county or organization participate?
If your county or organization would like to be a local administrator, please contact cdfa.emergency_response@cdfa.ca.gov. See more details in this Program Overview (PDF).
Funding and program costs
California has received FEMA approval for non-congregate sheltering during the public health crisis.
The State will seek reimbursement for hotel costs for this program at 75% federal cost share.
Costs for transportation, meals, wellness checks and any other services would be identified at the county level. Philanthropy may cover part or all of the costs. Some costs may be eligible for FEMA reimbursement by the county.
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CalMatters’ Matt Levin, The Fresno Bee’s Manuela Tobias and The Desert Sun’s Rebecca Plevin contributed to [the main source] report. [That] article is part of the California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequality and economic survival in California.