2023-05-13 04:50:02
ROYAL OAKS, Calif. (AP) — A dilapidated greenhouse at a northern California nursery was home to dozens of farmworkers and their families who lived in small, unsafe houses with no ventilation, authorities said Friday.
Officials found 62 makeshift homes inside the greenhouse on a property in rural Monterey County that had been put together with plywood, drywall and other materials, county spokesman Nick Pasculli said.
“There are exposed gas lines and cables, there is no proper drainage. The conditions are very harsh,” Pasculli said.
It was not yet clear if the farmworkers were employees of the nursery in the Royal Oaks community or just lived there, the official added. He said some residents were paying up to $2,000 a month in rent, and one of them told investigators that he had lived there for more than eight months.
Researchers have also not yet determined where the migrant families come from, according to Pasculli, although some of them speak languages indigenous to the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Authorities began investigating the property this week following receiving an anonymous complaint.
The nursery owner will be fined nearly $60,000 each day his property violates building, health and environmental codes, Pasculli said.
The name of the landlord has not been released because the investigation is ongoing, he added.
County officials are working with families to find suitable housing, and the landlord will have to pay two months’ rent for each of the 62 families who lived on his property, Pasculli said.
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