Helping hands

ALBANY, N.Y. — Three years ago, vegetable grower Paul Zittel took out a $100,000 loan under the state’s Farmworker Housing Program to build living space for 18 workers on his 180-acre farm.

It was the only way to retain longtime employees on his holdings in Eden, south of Buffalo.

“We’ve had a group of workers from Mexico working here for 14 years,” said Mr. Zittel. “Of the 11 men who started, nine of them are still with us. It means we’re doing something right. We’re paying properly and providing them with amenities.”

An expansion of the $3 million housing program, which provides low-cost loans of up to $100,000, was signed into law by Gov. George E. Pataki last month. The original revolving-loan program, run by the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal and instituted in 1995, was only available to seasonal vegetable and fruit farmers to build housing for migrant workers.

Now dairy and other year-round farmers can use the program to build housing for their employees, an incentive farmers can use to attract and keep workers.

There are an estimated 3 million farmworkers in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. About 80,000 of them toil on New York state’s 37,000 farms.

When the original law passed, the demand for housing on many farms wasn’t as high as on the seasonal farms, said Christopher LaRoe, a spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau. That has changed in the past few years.

Now “more and more full-time dairy workers are making the same kinds of demands for housing in their work and benefit package,” Mr. LaRoe said. Dairy farmers, who account for more than half of New York’s farm revenue, and others hoping to attract and keep good workers, have also had to increase pay in recent years, Mr. LaRoe said.

“We’ve tried to keep workers through wages and benefits, but it’s a hard situation for them to find housing,” said David Taylor, owner of Concord Nurseries in North Collins, 21 miles south of Buffalo. The 1,000-acre operation employs 45 to 50 full-time workers year-round. Mr. Taylor said he is considering using the Farmworker Housing Program to build accommodations for them.

“It’s a matter of looking to keep good workers,” he said.

The bill signed by Mr. Pataki will also allow two or more farmers to pool loans and jointly build housing areas for workers. The legislation doesn’t increase the amount of money available.

“We recognize that providing housing is critical to a farmer’s ability to attract workers,” said Judith Calogero, of the Department of Housing and Community Renewal. “The current program has gone a long way in providing the resources seasonal farmers need to do that. Now we can provide those resources to dairy farmers who need year-round help to stay in business.”

To date, 97 loans totaling $3.53 million have been handed out to New York farmers, according to Peter Moses, a spokesman for DHCR. About $994,000 is currently available from the fund.

Farm Credit of Western New York administers the loans in 16 counties in the western part of the state and First Pioneer Farm Credit handles the loans in the rest of New York.

The federal government and states including California, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Washington also have programs specifically geared to build farmworker housing, according to the Housing Assistance Council, a nonprofit organization based in Washington.