Prototype Home Addresses Migrant Housing Shortage

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A recent study by the Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing at the University of Florida estimated the number of migrant and seasonal farm workers in Florida at approximately 171,000, not counting dependents. Because approximately 43 percent of these farmworkers move frequently to find work, finding decent, safe, and affordable short-term housing presents a significant burden for both the workers and the growers who hire them. “Agriculture has to compete for the people working on farms like never before,” said Florida grower Jay Taylor of Taylor Fulton Farms.

In 2004, Hurricane Wilma exacerbated the problem by devastating many Florida communities, including the homes of many migrant farmworkers around Lake Okeechobee. “In today’s housing market, it’s more and more difficult to find decent housing for farmworkers,” said Bob Spencer of the West Coast Tomato Company. “The worst thing is for them [farmworkers] to come to the area and have substandard housing and living conditions. It’s very expensive for us to grow these crops and have this produce fresh. It doesn’t do us any good to grow them and have no one to harvest them.”

The Migrant Worker Prototype House was constructed and finished in five weeks.

Guided by input from growers, Jack Rechcigl, director of the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, began to search for a quality housing solution that would be easy to build, cost-efficient, and able to withstand the environmental conditions of Florida, including Category 4 hurricanes. Underwritten with $85,000 from HUD and $11,000 from Taylor, the Migrant Worker Prototype House was conceived, designed, funded, and built by a group of private- and public-sector partners interested in building quality, sustainable housing for Florida’s migrant farm workers.

Unveiled to the public on December 6, 2006 at the Florida Agricultural Expo in Wimauma, Florida, the 900-square-foot Migrant Worker Prototype House was constructed for approximately $100 per square foot. The home has two bedrooms for up to five workers, one bathroom, a combined kitchen/living room, and a laundry room — an important feature for workers who are exposed daily to pesticides and often have limited access to laundry facilities.

Structural insulated panels (SIPS) are energy-efficient, mold- and mildew-resistant, and can withstand Category 4 hurricane winds.

One of the most attractive features of the Migrant Worker Prototype House is its incorporation of structural insulated panels (SIPs). “We were invited to design and build the prototype because our SIPs met four essential criteria for sustainability and efficiency,” said Forrest Berg, president of ICS of Florida, Inc. The panels can withstand Category 4 hurricane winds and are energy-efficient, mold- and mildew-resistant, and noncombustible. In tests conducted by the University of North Carolina, SIPs were found to have a 0 flame spread, which makes the product virtually flameproof. Insulation values ranged from R-20 (3 inches) to R-42 (6½ inches), which would provide a 30- to 50-percent reduction in energy consumption, depending on local heating and cooling requirements and local utility costs. The moisture and mildew barrier and the 18-gauge metal framing are critical to withstanding Florida’s humid environment and seasonal hurricanes.

SIPs also save money because they’re easy to install, which in turn reduces the number of construction workers needed. “If you have one good lead man who knows the product and good labor talent, you can erect the envelope of the building in a relatively short amount of time. This type of technology dramatically shortens the build time and results in a structure that is commensurate with concrete block construction,” Berg reports. The Migrant Worker Prototype House was built and finished in five weeks.

Installation of SIPS requires fewer construction workers than traditional construction methods.

This new generation of housing, designed to help address the short supply of adequate and affordable housing for migrant workers, “...is going to be an incentive for other growers across the state to engage and be involved in housing for their employees. We have a housing crisis in the state of Florida that is especially aggravated for the working poor. This [prototype house] may be a partial answer to the need. It’s something that I think the growers’ community can embrace and afford,” said Taylor.

For additional information about the Migrant Worker Prototype House, contact Jack Rechcigl, director of the Gulf Coast Research and Education Center at the University of Florida, at 813.643.0000, extension 3101.