not enough housing for Coachella grape harvesters

https://secure.ga6.org/08/housing606/nh1z1bTE1Fc66?

The grape harvest has reached its peak season in the Coachella
area--28 miles from Palm Springs. I just received a report from
our regional director, Joe Mota, that I wanted to share with you
and let you know how you can help.

Joe reports that the housing situation is critical. Hundreds of
people--including seniors and children--are sleeping outside in
the sweltering heat.

Alvaro Celeya, a grape worker for the last 20 years, told him,
"We either sleep in our cars or sleep on the floor in a parking
lot...There is not enough housing for everyone that comes to
work in Mecca. Even if you are lucky in finding housing, it is
either in a garage and you have to share it with 12 to 15 other
farm workers who pay $30.00 a week to live there. The
mattresses stink and the bathrooms are dirty. Sometimes living
in your car is a much better option...The parking lot gets full
every night and the restrooms are horrible. Since there are
about 350 to 400 people staying in the parking lots, and 4
restrooms, they get full really quick and they only get drained
twice a week."

Another vineyard worker, Marcelo Norieg, told Joe, "I feel that
I am important to the grape company that I work for but yet they
don't care how we live. They just care that their harvest is
picked...They know how we live, because this has been happening
for as long as I have been coming here which is more than 10
years...The more profit they can make, the happier they are and
yet we are left living like animals on the floor and using the
bathrooms behind trees and cooking our food out in the parking
lot. Something needs to be done...it is not right that people
have to live like they are living now while not too far away,
people live in huge homes."

This shortage of housing will continue as workers follow the
grape harvest as it moves north through the Central Valley. This
summer, grape worker organizing is one of my top priorities.