An NC State architecture class, led by Henry Sanoff, is working with farm owners, migrant workers and the North Carolina Department of Labor, which issues regulations regarding farmworker safety and health, on realistic solutions to the problems of migrant-worker lodging. In 1995, more than 35,000 migrants worked in North Carolina. This meant that including family memers there were more than 70,000 people who lived in migrant-farmer housing in the state that year, according to figures from the N.C. Department of Labor. This fall, four teams from Sanoff's class traveled across the state visiting farmworker camps housing from 15 to 500 people. The students conducted on-site workshops with farmworkers.
Different farms have different forms of housing, such as trailers or barracks.
Sanitation facilities often are shared, and in many instances there is no division between toilets and showers. Tuberculosis and other diseases can be a serious problem at the camps. Workers face many challenges, Sanoff says. Farmworkers who are married and have children face the problem of finding housing for their families. Some workers come out of the fields, after working all day in chemical-laden vegetation, and go straight to meals without taking a shower or changing clothes.