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Sunday, 12/24/06

Farm worker apartments break new ground in state
Warren County affordable-housing complex is first of kind in Tennessee

By JANELL ROSS
Staff Writer


MORRISON, Tenn. — From the stretch of Highway 55 that cuts through Warren County a driver can catch a glimpse of some of what defines life in the rural space between Nashville and Knoxville.

There are rows of green shielded inside steamy greenhouses. Some days, in the amber light just before dusk, drivers can see farmers and farmhands wrapping up work at one of more than 500 area nurseries. They grow plants to sell to landscapers and garden centers.

And just a few miles beyond the Highway 55 placard welcoming drivers to Morrison, Tenn., is the sign that speaks volumes about Warren County's economy, its work force and its most pressing needs.

It reads: "Beacon Light Apartments."

The 24-unit apartment complex, which celebrated its official opening this month, is an affordable-housing development for farm workers and the first of its kind in Tennessee. The complex was paid for by a combination of state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Midstate's Upper Cumberland Development District, an economic development agency.

Beacon Light's creamy-white siding, maroon shutters and coin-operated laundry offer a sharp contrast to the stereotypical idea of farm laborers' housing, which can run the gamut from tent cities to Spartan dorms, the worst of which may lack electricity or running water.

The apartments, which cost $1.5 million to build, will make it possible for at least some families — many of them Hispanic — who work in the Warren County nursery business to enjoy a safe and stable address at modest rents of $150 to $450 a month, depending on family size and income.

"We realized that in Warren County, there are farm workers who were finding places to live, but there are a whole lot of farm workers spending just about all that they earn on rent. And, of course, there are farm worker housing situations that could just break your heart," said Wendy Askins, executive director of the Upper Cumberland agency.

A division of Askins' agency acts as landlord for the two- and three-bedroom apartment complex, which, after taking its first tenants this fall, has filled 14 of its 24 units. It is still accepting applications for the 10 vacancies.

Filling a need

When Victor Velasquez arrived in Warren County two winters ago from his home near Mexico City, he was a single man who came to earn money to send home. His first employer provided dormitory-style housing that Velasquez said had no heat and very limited water pressure. To find better housing, Velasquez had to find a different job.

A friend connected him with another area nursery, but it didn't provide housing. Velasquez and a group of friends moved into a rental house in McMinnville with a leaky roof and, at times when the landlord did not pay the electricity bill, no lights or heat.

"It was like moving from bad to even worse," Velasquez said in Spanish.

Now that Velasquez has moved into a second-floor, two-bedroom Beacon Light apartment near his Morrison, Tenn., nursery-industry employer, his housing and employment situations have stabilized. He pays $250 a month and has plenty of space for himself, his girlfriend and their 1-year-old son.

Velasquez spoke to a Tennessean reporter but declined to allow any photos inside his brand-new apartment.

"I wouldn't want anyone to think that I am bragging," he said. "Besides, some people here like the immigrants … but some people, well, they don't."

Plants are big business

Askins said she saw other nursery workers living in a tent provided by an employer last winter.

"I shudder to think of anyone living in a tent," she said. "… And I'll tell you this, that can't be good for that family and it can't be good for Warren County's economic climate."

Today, a majority of Warren County's residents are employed in either manufacturing or service industry jobs, County Mayor John Pelham said. But there are 512 nursery and related operations that sell almost $80 million worth of plants and shrubs worldwide.

"This work, it takes a strong back, but it also requires a certain amount of education or technical skill," Pelham said. "… So, in Warren County, we certainly have a tremendous amount of respect for our growers and farm workers."

The Warren County's nursery industry employs about 4,000 farm hands, about 1,800 of whom live in the county permanently, according to the Upper Cumberland Development District. For at least the last 20 years, the county's nurseries have depended heavily upon immigrant — mostly Latino — labor.

While many of these workers used to come and go with the seasons and some continue to work in the county on H2A and H2B visas — which allow foreign nationals to work in the United States — a growing number have become year-round residents, said McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce President Lea Chrisawn.

County farmhand wages tend to range from about $6.50 to $12 an hour. Most earn about $6.50, or $260 a week, said Douglas Stevick, managing attorney for Southern Migrant Legal Services in Nashville, which provides free legal services to seasonal workers in six states, including Tennessee.

Open to all farm workers

Developments such as Beacon Light move employees "out from under the thumbs of their employers," Stevick said. People who get apartments at Beacon Light also must prove they're in the United States legally.

While Beacon Light represents the first off-farm affordable housing development in Tennessee, there are at least 20 other USDA-financed off-farm affordable apartment projects in Texas and one in North Carolina.

Lawyers affiliated with Stevick's agency are suing the organization that maintains one such development in Quitage, Texas, alleging a history of poor maintenance.

Askins and Pelham said the Upper Cumberland district has a good track record of maintaining its developments.

While Chrisawn and Pelham describe Warren County as a community with no open racial tensions, a story that ran in a local paper about the development did spark a few phone calls at the Upper Cumberland Development District's office.

The story ran under the headline: "Hispanic-only Housing Opens."

The Beacon Light Apartments are open to all farm workers — without regard to race or ethnicity, Askins said. They are limited to farm workers, similar to other Upper Cumberland projects that focus on senior citizens or people with disabilities, in order to fill a specific housing need, she said.

A nursery owner's view

Eric Walker owns Walker Nursery Co. in McMinnville. He also sits on the planning commission that approved the Beacon Light apartment complex.

"The first thing that came to mind when it came to the commission," Walker said, "was, 'Yes. This is what we need.' As a business owner I need to keep my work force. I need decent places for them to live. As a person, that's what I want for my workers."

At least once a year, Walker said, he thinks about building his own housing for the 40 or so workers he employs at his nursery. But then cost gets in the way.

Beacon Light, a $1.5 million project, was financed with a combination of grants, loans and cash contributions from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, the Federal Home Loan Bank and the Upper Cumberland Development District.

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Yes, that is a great heart warming story,but what about the homeless of other races,do not they need affordable housing? No wonder so many illegal aliens keep coming, and no wonder our state has reached 6 million people, I have heard for several years how much the government gives to the immigrants, it must be true. These perks are giving because the corporate world controls America

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 6:16 am

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