Industrial hemp will be used to build affordable housing for farmworkers in Huron
.JPG "Rudy Arredondo, founder and president of Latino Farmers and Ranchers International during a housing land blessing ceremony lead by Grupo Tonalkalko from Fresno on Thursday (Dec. 7) at Huron Park Estates to celebrate the collaboration and partnership between Latino Farmers & Ranchers International with Western Fiber company for the farmworker housing project.")
What do industrial hemp and farmworker housing have in common? Hemp insulation or what some calls ‘hempsulation.”
A groundbreaking initiative using industrial hemp building materials aimed to address the issue of farmworkers housing in Fresno County is on the horizon in this Fresno County city.
The housing project will consist of 33 single-family homes on the east side of Huron.
Not only would the development be sustainable and carbon-passive, but it would be the first “Small Hemp Home Village” in the country, according to Huron Mayor Rey León.
León said the housing project is a “pilot that we can learn from and build off from so that we could further sequester carbon and make homes more comfortable, less toxic and more efficient.”
Rudy Arredondo, founder and president of Latino Farmers and Ranchers International, said hemp is “incredible versatile.”
Latino Farmers and Ranchers International, based in Washington, D.C., represents more than 75,000 Latino farmers in the United State.
A housing land blessing ceremony lead by Grupo Tonalkalko from Fresno took place Thursday (Dec. 7) at Huron Park Estates – one of the locations of the housing project - to celebrate the collaboration and partnership between Latino Farmers & Ranchers International with west Valley farmer Tom Pires, and Mike McGuire, the president of Western Fiber company who grew up in Hanford.
.JPG "HURON-HEMP-FARMWORKERS HOUSING_12-07-23_MOB (4).JPG")
Pires said the project will build low-income, affordable housing for farmworkers and their families.
“We’re trying to bring back the affordable house for sale and the place to start at is with the farm,” said McGuire on a phone call from Oklahoma where Western Fiber is based.
McGuire said Huron is at the epicenter of food production in the San Joaquín Valley and it has the lowest income rates.
“There’s very little opportunity to own a home without government subsidies and so on and so forth,” McGuire said.
When it comes to the housing project for farmworkers and their families, McGuire said they are trying to do this housing project as private company, with Huron and local investors.
“We’re trying to make this a national model. This will be a national model. The only reason we’re working as diligently as we are, is because this is everywhere,” McGuire said of the housing issue. “It’s not just here, not just in Huron, it’s everywhere. It’s happened all across the country, all across the United States.”
.JPG "HURON-HEMP-FARMWORKERS HOUSING_12-07-23_MOB (3).JPG")
McGuire said they have farm communities from all over the country contacting them about the project.
“It’s really time to do this and bring back affordable housing,” he said, adding that those homes are also “carbon negative housing using the hemp and agricultural products, we are going to lower the cost of housing.”
Huron has a population of approximately 6,240, according to the Census. During the harvest season, the population swells to over 15,000 people due to the influx of migrant farmworkers.
“We are here, we want to move forward,” said Arredondo during the land blessing ceremony. “We want to kick start it. So, this is our effort to try to get this moving because we want to start construction pretty soon.”
.JPG "HURON-HEMP-FARMWORKERS HOUSING_12-07-23_MOB (1).JPG")
Included in the development of the housing project will be amenities such as a community center and park enhancements.
“Housing increases your stability, increases your peace of mind. So, it is very critical,” Arredondo said.
