Home away from home—housing seasonal vineyard workers

Wines & Vines, Oct, 2002 by Jane Firstenfeld

Other Areas, Other Solutions

Take Napa, for instance, where the problems, costs and demographics are similar; where, in 2001, a peak of 6,000 workers serviced the harvest season. Last year, The Napa Valley Housing Authority (NVHA) offered 174 beds in four camps managed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (CHDC) and wineries provided an additional 85 beds in six to eight other camps.

The St. Helena Catholic Church opens its doors to 60 more workers, and in 2001 and 2002, the NVHC also erected a camp consisting of 10 four-bed yurts--tent-like structures where workers pay $10/day for room and board.

This year, a special assessment district was established, and Napa Valley vineyard owners voted by an 85% majority to tax themselves $7.66 per acre to help operate a $3.4 million, 60-bed camp on five acres of land donated by Joseph Phelps Vineyards. This camp, owned by NVHA and operated by CHDC, is not scheduled to open until harvest, 2003. It received a $1.6 million state grant, an $800,000, no-interest loan from the Napa County Housing Trust Fund, and $650,000 from the Napa County Vintners Association's annual wine auction.

Designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Brandenburger, Taylor, Lombardo LLP, the camp will feature environmentally friendly forced-earth construction; two-man, dormitory-style rooms; communal bathrooms; a kitchen and dining hall where workers will receive two meals a day; offices for county staff, who will administer safety training and education courses, a soccer field and a basketball court.

Not all vintners were pleased with the new tax. Initially, Beringer Wine Estates, one of the valley's largest employers and vineyard owners, requested an exemption, on the basis that its workers were sufficiently well paid to afford housing; that Beringer already leased the county a 24-bed public housing facility in Carneros for $1 per year; and additionally, that the county's assessment was based on an exaggerated number of vineyard acres.

Beringer later withdrew the request, apologizing for "an honest mistake," and admitting that they had sent the wrong message to farmworkers. Two other vineyard owners, Eagle and Rose Estate, Pope Valley and Frank Wood and Sons, St. Helena, also applied for exemptions on similar grounds. The Napa County Board of Supervisors was expected to rule on these requests Sept. 10.

Happy Families

Mendocino County has fewer wineries than Napa or Sonoma, and even less housing. After three years of wrangling with the planning department and eight months of construction, Roederer Estate winery, in the isolated Anderson Valley, inaugurated new worker housing in July.

While all the camps described above are limited to single male farmworkers, Roederer took a different approach for housing its staff. The new housing consists of four duplexes, scenically situated in the estate's vineyards. Each features two, two-bedroom individual apartments, equipped with kitchens and baths, available to families of no more than four.