Apr 16, 2010

Michigan Passes New Migrant Housing Inspection Fee

Michigan growers who plan to house five or more migrant laborers on their land will have a new fee to pay this year.

State House of Representatives bill 5657, introduced by Rep. John Espinoza, imposes a migrant labor housing licensing and inspection fee of $5 for each occupant a housing unit is capable of quartering. For example, if a unit can house 10 people, then the owner is assessed a fee of $50 for that house. The bill has passed the state House and Senate. Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed it into law March 16.

Previously, permits for migrant worker housing were supplied free of charge to growers, though inspections were a requirement. The state is no longer funding those permits in full, however.

“We were staring down the barrel of a gun with a program that had no budget,” said Denise Donohue, executive director of the Michigan Apple Committee. “We don’t want to get caught in a position where we don’t have a valid license from a neutral third party.”

Michigan has roughly 850 migrant housing locations with 4,400 living units that are licensed each year. The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) does an average of 1,000 inspections annually that cover licensing, complaints and construction review. According to Jennifer Holton, public information officer for MDA, there are 22,000 occupants in these dwellings, of which 40-50 percent are children and elderly.

Cuts to the program had already occurred. The program today has four inspectors to handle the workload, down from nine originally. The $5 fee provides $110,000 in funding for a program that costs the state $647,000 to operate, Holton said.

“We were in favor of some kind of fee to support the program,” Donohue said. “The agriculture industry already pays plenty, but this fee beats the alternatives. With a state government inspection, we have a local element to help in communication.”

At the core of the matter were concerns over public health, Donohue said. Issues had already risen regarding sanitary conditions for migrant labor housing and health issues with food processing.

“There has to be public confidence in the food supply,” she said.

According to Holton, the newly enacted $5 fee is a short-term fix for this year. When Granholm presented her fiscal year 2011 budget in February, there was a proposed fee of $30 per worker to cover the cost of housing permits. If that were to pass, the current $5 fee per occupant would increase to $30. If it does not pass, the fee will remain at $5.