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  1. #1
    Senior Member bearpaw's Avatar
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    The not-so-great outdoors

    More than 2,300 homeless agricultural workers, others said to be living in canyons of San Diego County.

    As Romulo Munoz descends into the hollow where he lives, he sees the pastel hues of new suburban developments rimming McGonigle Canyon, a wide breach between Carmel Valley and Rancho Peñasquitos. Clusters of homes loom above him at the edge, where cul-de-sacs give way to tangled brush.

    Romulo Munoz Vasques, 42, (right) and his son, Nicolas Munoz, 20, both migrant day laborers, hiked the hill that leads to his "casa" in one of the Rancho Peñasquitos canyons.

    A few steps farther and he's home, in a rural encampment of about a dozen shanties of tarpaulin and plastic sheeting, propped up by wooden poles and hidden beneath a clump of trees. He and his neighbors, mostly low-wage agricultural workers like himself, bathe in a nearby creek and cook their meals on camp stoves, as if civilization were miles away.

    For decades now, homeless immigrants, many from southern Mexico, have camped in the region's canyons. Most live in northern and northeastern San Diego County, where agriculture – and more recently development – provides a ready source of jobs.

    An estimated 2,300-plus homeless farmworkers, nursery workers, landscapers, day laborers and others – nearly one-fourth of the county's homeless population – live in the county year-round, according to San Diego's Regional Task Force on the Homeless. Many are undocumented, though not all.

    It has been almost a dozen years since the city moved roughly 750 people, including families, out of a massive shantytown at the bottom of the canyon where Munoz camps. Many were relocated to affordable housing, and the issue of rural homelessness in the San Diego region quietly faded.

    But San Diego's rural homeless never went away, only scattered. At least 200 men live in McGonigle Canyon today in small, isolated encampments. Others live in Carlsbad, Oceanside, Del Mar, Encinitas, Escondido, San Marcos and Poway, according to the task force.

    More than 1,000 live in unincorporated areas of the county, where farm work has moved as development claims rural stretches of the coast.

    As former farmland gives way to homes, the buffer between rural poverty and suburban affluence has narrowed. Tensions have flared as homeowners, some fueled by the national furor over illegal immigration, lobby local officials to clear out the homeless. In recent weeks, anti-illegal-immigration activists have targeted McGonigle Canyon in hopes of rooting them out, hiking through encampments and crashing nearby day-labor pickup sites.

    At the same time, the more land is developed and populated, the harder it is to procure affordable housing for low-wage agricultural workers.

    The type of rural homelessness seen in San Diego's canyons isn't new or unique to regions with agricultural industries reliant on low-wage help. Nor is it specifically tied to foreign immigration: During the Dust Bowl flight of the 1930s, homeless “Okies” following the crops camped in the Imperial Valley.

    What's unique about the situation in San Diego is that the rural homeless live cheek by jowl with the encroaching development of one of the largest cities in the nation, in one of the most expensive regions to live in.

    San Diego is the country's seventh-largest metropolis. It ties with Monterey as the state's third-least affordable housing region, according to the California Association of Realtors. Yet it sits in a county whose agricultural industry ranks 12th in the nation, with nursery crops the top product and more small farms than any county in the United States.

    “This is not replicated anywhere else in the country,” said Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. “If you look at the other top 12 agricultural counties in the nation, none of them are urban. We have this built-in conflict. We like to have farming in San Diego County, but our housing prices are beyond the reach of those farmworkers.”

    Last summer, the city of San Diego applied for a $3 million state grant to develop affordable farmworker housing near McGonigle Canyon, but has been unable to move forward after three city-owned sites proved inappropriate because of land-use problems.

    In Carlsbad, where as many as 500 farmworkers and day laborers are believed to be homeless, two recent attempts to develop housing were thwarted after objections from property owners.

    “Farmworker housing? I don't see a place to even get a toehold,” said Sharon Johnson, manager of San Diego's Homeless Services Program. “As the coast is being developed, it closes off entire sections of land. It is the most obstacle-ridden endeavor I have ever been involved with.”

    Increasing friction
    Unlike urban low-wage workers, agricultural workers in North County tend to work in areas where high-end development is the norm, rentals are scarce and expensive, and public transportation is limited.

    For many, it comes down to a choice: spending all they earn on an apartment shared with several others, probably far from work, and paying for rides, or roughing it and saving their earnings to send home to their families.

    “The money just doesn't stretch that far,” said Evaristo Lopez, a 25-year-old landscaper from the Mexican state of Oaxaca who lives in McGonigle Canyon and sends most of his pay to his wife and parents.

    The encampments in the canyon stand in clusters, mini-villages where many inhabitants come from the same region and speak the same indigenous languages. In the camp where Romulo Munoz lives, the men are Amusgos, natives of a region of Mexico that encompasses parts of Oaxaca and Guerrero.

    They share canned meals heated over a camp stove, sitting on wooden crates and homemade hammocks. On weekends, those who lack transportation pay others to take them into town to do laundry and buy groceries. Those who can't get out of the canyon, or who are counting every penny, make do in other ways.

    “We wash our clothes in the creek, we bathe in the creek, and sometimes we drink water from the creek,” said Munoz, 42, a former small-town cop from Oaxaca who earns $350 a week picking tomatoes, more than he did back home.

    On weekday mornings, they stream out of the canyon past pricey homes to walk to work or wait for rides, then return at the end of the day. Many homeowners complain about homeless individuals hanging around as they wait to be picked up by fellow workers or contractors.

    “They bring down our property values,” said homeowner Steve Vealey, adding that several men tend to congregate near his house. “They march right by here. You see this parade of scruffy-looking individuals.”

    Residents in the Rancho Peñasquitos area have held community meetings to urge police, city officials and immigration agents to check the homeless men's immigration status and get rid of them. But it's not so easily done.

    Police say not all canyon dwellers are in the country illegally. Even for those who are, the area doesn't lie within the Border Patrol's jurisdiction. San Diego police don't check immigration status, in part because it could create a fear of police among immigrants that officers say could hinder their work. Police also say the homeless men haven't presented a serious crime threat.

    In many cases, they've been preyed on by thieves, said Boris Martinez, until recently an immigrant liaison officer with the San Diego Police Department. Several were recently robbed by someone who pretended to hire them for day labor.

    City code enforcement officials were involved in clearing out the large McGonigle Canyon settlement in 1994. But the situation today is different, said Tony Khalil, acting deputy director of neighborhood code compliance. Code enforcement doesn't normally get involved in routing small homeless encampments like the ones that exist today, he said.

    Khalil believes the community itself is partly to blame.

    “These people would not be there unless they had jobs,” he said. “The same people who complain about them are the ones who hire them. They want them to disappear at night.”

    Perplexing problem
    Other agricultural counties have homeless farmworkers, but different rental-market and property-ownership dynamics make for more housing options.

    In Fresno, for example, while homeless migrant workers are seen during harvests, housing officials say rents near the fields are affordable enough for many year-round workers to share with several roommates.

    In the Napa Valley, which until a few years ago had a large contingent of homeless farmworkers camping along the Napa River, county housing officials were able to negotiate cheap leases from winery owners and open shelters on the land that cost workers a low daily fee.

    San Diego County is different from other agricultural areas, including similarly expensive Napa, in that most of the land in the coastal agricultural zone, where homelessness is most visible, is owned by developers who lease to farmers.

    “It is not permanently zoned for agriculture,” said Sue Reynolds, chief executive of Community Housing Works, a nonprofit affordable-housing developer involved in relocating families from the former McGonigle Canyon camp. “It is zoned for development. That combination makes it quite challenging.”

    Most of San Diego County's farms also are very small, giving farmers little land to spare. Then there's the expense of providing adequate housing, which by law must have proper electrical, water, sewer and other infrastructure.

    “Just because it is an option doesn't mean the farmer wants to do it,” Larson said. “There is this expectation that farmers should provide housing, while we are not expecting the landscaping companies or the fast-food restaurants to do the same.”

    There are no laws requiring that farmers house workers unless they import labor using the H2A visa, a temporary agricultural nonimmigrant visa that's rarely used locally. According to the Farm Bureau, the only farm in the county known to be using this program is Oceanside vegetable grower Harry Singh and Sons, also one of just a handful of local employers who provide housing.

    There's little other permanent affordable housing in the region specifically for agricultural workers, aside from two complexes in San Marcos, one run by the county and one by a faith-based group, and 60 units in Fallbrook operated by Community Housing Works. Those who qualify must prove that a set percentage of their income is derived from farm or nursery work; depending on funding sources, many, including those in county housing, also must prove legal-resident status.

    The Interfaith Shelter Network operates temporary winter shelters, and those in Escondido and Oceanside take in farmworkers in addition to other homeless people. Catholic Charities runs two men's shelters in Carlsbad and Calexico.

    Recent public attempts to provide farmworker housing have fallen flat. The city of San Diego's project, initiated by council President Scott Peters, who represents the city's coastal areas, has failed to get off the ground because of a lack of suitable, available city land.

    In Carlsbad, a city-formed task force, the Carlsbad Farmworker Housing Coordinating Committee, first tried to develop housing on vacant land offered by a grower, but nearby residents complained. Last year, it looked at a business park, but the business owners complained.

    Meanwhile, more people keep arriving in the camps. In March, Munoz welcomed his son Nicolas, 20, who now shares his roughly 7-by-7-foot plastic shanty. Maybe in a few years, if they earn enough, they can return to Oaxaca, Munoz said. For now, they'll tough it out in McGonigle Canyon. “Sometimes I think it would be much better to be home with my wife,” Munoz said one Sunday afternoon, as he and his camp mates braced for a spring rainstorm. “But you have to keep trying.”



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  2. #2
    Senior Member bearpaw's Avatar
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    The employers of these workers should be jailed for what they are doing to the men and to the American taxpayers.
    Work together for the benefit of all mankind

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    Crime dosn't pay ,I'm sure if he started to respect the laws of my country he would be much better off .

  4. #4
    Senior Member sippy's Avatar
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    There are no laws requiring that farmers house workers unless they import labor using the H2A visa, a temporary agricultural nonimmigrant visa that's rarely used locally. According to the Farm Bureau, the only farm in the county known to be using this program is Oceanside vegetable grower Harry Singh and Sons, also one of just a handful of local employers who provide housing.
    If the H2A visa is rarely used locally, then it means the majority of their workers are illegal. What a benefit for these greedy employers. Hire illegal workers to escape the law of housing them as well.


    Well said Bearpaw!
    "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results is the definition of insanity. " Albert Einstein.

  5. #5
    Senior Member bearpaw's Avatar
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    sippy,


    Hire illegal workers to escape the law of housing them as well.
    Us taxpayers are taking care of housing them.
    Work together for the benefit of all mankind

  6. #6
    Senior Member sippy's Avatar
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    sippy,


    Quote:
    Hire illegal workers to escape the law of housing them as well.


    Us taxpayers are taking care of housing them.
    Very true. As you mentioned above, these employers need to be jailed for what they are doing.

    This is very sad to see happening to our great outdoors. We have this problem in UT as well. This problem barely gets local attention let alone national attention. Some of UT's great camping areas are beginning to look like the border pick up spots. It makes me sick!!!
    "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results is the definition of insanity. " Albert Einstein.

  7. #7
    Senior Member CheyenneWoman's Avatar
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    Just the other day, I found out that many of our mountain picnic spots are starting to become "migrant camps". This absolutely blew what's left of my puny little mind.

    There is no work up here for illegals. It's all down the hill in the Denver metro area. Yet, we're starting to get the influx.

    A friend of mine took her kids to go hiking in one of the mountain "parks" up here and found that the entire picnic area with filled with non-english speaking people, who left trash everywhere, playing loud music, and being generally disruptive.

    She encountered a ranger as she was leaving, who gave her a little booklet of "hidden places" to go with her family. He said this has been happening up here for over a year. He told her he has to chase "migrants" out on a regular basis.

    This is insane!!!

  8. #8
    gingerurp's Avatar
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    There needs to be some sort of pressure on Mexico to take care of its own people so they don't end up like that. International shunning of Fox and his rich friends might work. Get the media to show how the mexican poor live here and in Mexico. They need to take responsibility for their own people instead of us doing it.

  9. #9
    Senior Member sippy's Avatar
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    Ginger,
    You are correct. The Mexican government is more corrupt than ours is, and their government needs serious reform.

    What is interesting is that Mexico has very strict immigration laws, and they have no problem enforcing them.But remember, we are racists because we want our laws enforeced, where as they are simply a country "enforcing their laws."
    "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results is the definition of insanity. " Albert Einstein.

  10. #10
    Senior Member CheyenneWoman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gingerurp
    There needs to be some sort of pressure on Mexico to take care of its own people so they don't end up like that. International shunning of Fox and his rich friends might work. Get the media to show how the mexican poor live here and in Mexico. They need to take responsibility for their own people instead of us doing it.
    I just read something that curiouspat posted that, literally, forced me out of the room screaming. Here is an excerpt and the thread . . .

    In May, 2005 the Council on Foreign Relations put together a North America Community Task Force that was focused on seamlessly merging the peoples and economics of the United States, Canada and Mexico into a North American Union. What that means is that, under the terms of the trade agreement signed by President George W. Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, Bush can't seal the American borders. The triparte agreement between the three nations contains an "open skies and open roads" clause that requires each nation to have free access to the other two. To go along with this "openness," a biometric triparte border pass (i.e., an tri-national ID card) is being developed to guarantee North American citizens effortless access to the North American continent.
    Here's the link:

    http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ic&t=36558

    This is why idiot boy doesn't do anything. He's signed us all away!!!!

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