A better home away from home
New $20M housing project aims to improve plight of farm workers
LEAMINGTON Construction on what’s being touted as a private-sector solution to keep thousands of migrant workers healthy and even happy on local farms started nearly a year before the novel coronavirus even had a name.
Finding answers has become urgent. The rapid spread of COVID-19 within the local agrifood sector has drawn public criticism and led to calls for better protections for workers seen as essential to Canada’s food supply chain. Hundreds of foreign farm workers have contracted the virus in Essex County alone, one of the area’s biggest greenhouse growers was ordered shut down this week, and local small-business owners are pleading with the province to let them reopen.
Partnering with one of the biggest local agri-food employers, a local developer said a housing project worth about $20 million and nearing completion in Leamington points to a new and hopeful way forward.
“We think we have the solution here,” said Jim Liovas, president of Liovas Homes. “If you don’t want to spread (COVID -19), the only way is to change the environment. This is the answer.”
Changing the environment, Liovas said, means ending the practice of cramming large numbers of mostly young men from Mexico and other poorer countries into big bunkhouses or into residential housing units designed for single families.
Crowded accommodations with multiple occupants sharing amenities and having to eat, sleep and live in close quarters have been identified by health authorities as a major factor in the rapid climb in COVID-19 cases at some Ontario farms.
And it’s that virulent spread among local agri-food operations that is cited by the province as the reason Leamington and Kingsville are being left behind in Ontario’s economic recovery.
The Star on Thursday was given a tour of what some see as the answer — a 16-building development to the immediate southeast of uptown Leamington that Liovas said will provide “upper-scale” housing for close to 600 migrant workers.
“We could have just built a big building, a glorified bunkhouse, but this is a step up, it fits into the community,” said Liovas.
“We’re very proud of it — this is perfect for the agricultural sector,” said Mayor Hilda Macdonald.
Each building has six units with three bedrooms in each unit; each room has two beds with access to its own separate shower and bathroom. Each unit, with shared kitchen/dining and living room spaces for six occupants, has its own door to the outside.
Something the pandemic is teaching people, said Liovas, is that temporary migrant workers invited for decades into Canada to do farm work are “human beings who need more normal housing … this will be like living normal.”
Sturdy concrete floors and steel roofs, steel-stud walls with PVC covering and R30-rated styrofoam insulation block cladding will keep interiors clean, comfortable and quiet. Each six-resident unit will have its own washer and dryer in a separate space, and all bedrooms and closets will have deadbolt locks for added security of personal possessions. Rooms in traditional bunkhouses and rentals are typically open to all.
Outside the homes and surrounding an adjacent stormwater pond will be greenery, benches and places for residents to gather or relax. Soccer pitches are planned for recreation, and there are nearby municipal parks and amenities.
Located southwest of the County Roads 33 and 34 intersection, it’s just a short walk to Leamington’s commercial core, connected by a wide off-road trail. A grocery store specializing in the foods of the migrant workers will be located at the top of Woodsit Avenue, the new street through the development.
Targeted to open in the fall, there’s bad news for anyone interested in renting units here — Highline Mushrooms, one of the largest agri-food businesses in Essex County, has reserved every available unit in what the developer is hoping will be just the first of multiple phases to come. Liovas points to a section of undeveloped land between this project and nearby single-family homes and says it’s earmarked for Phase 2 expansion.
Pandemics weren’t on anyone’s mind when Highline CEO Aaron Hamer said the private-sector development — with no public funding involved — was proposed. The idea, he said, was to offer a better living experience to foreign workers when they weren’t on the farm.
“It’s important to us that our workers are proud of their accommodations,” said Hamer.
It isn’t the cheapest option, but he said migrant workers who have been helping Highline for half a century deserve decent housing.
Currently, his company rents 46 residential properties in Kingsville and Leamington to house hundreds of its workers.
“Highline just wanted to have their people happy — I think they’re way ahead of everybody,” said Liovas, who spent three years and “dozens of meetings” with town officials to get the project approved.
Construction began a year ago, with a targeted completion date in the fall. He said his company owns “hundreds of rentals” across the county, most of them in Leamington, adding that easing pressure on the local residential rental market was a big factor in obtaining municipal approval.
Hamer said it was important for Highline to have happy, motivated workers living in good housing, located within walking distance of the urban core: “Now we can start thinking about off-work programming — English as a second language, sports and arts.”
Both Hamer and Liovas are convinced other employers will see the benefits of this type of private residential development for many more of Essex County’s 8,000 migrant farm workers.