MaineHousing program providing testing, shelter for migrant workers

A group of men wearing coveralls in a broccoli field with a heavy equipment behind them, with more men on the equipment.

Courtesy / Smith's Farm Migrant workers, seen here in a previous harvest at Smith's Farm in Aroostook County, are being housed through a program with MaineHousing.

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By Maureen Milliken

A MaineHousing program that began in March to provide shelter for homeless people with COVID-19 has evolved into one that helps protect the hundreds of migrant workers who come into the state to work for growers during harvest time.

The state's housing authority has contracted with hotels in Lewiston, Presque Isle and Bangor since July to provide a safe quarantine spot for any of the hundreds of migrant workers who come to Maine this time of year for harvests that range from blueberry to spruce tipping.

The program is in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, as well as community groups like Mano en Mano.

In April, MaineHousing issued a request for proposals from hotels and motels to help provide quarantine shelter for the homeless population and people living in group homes. Providing housing for those who need it "is what we do," so the COViD-19 shelter was a natural extension, said Denise Lord, MaineHousing senior director of communications and planning.

The hotels provide either the entire building, or a block of rooms that can be segregated to keep those with COVID-19 away from the rest of the hotel.

About 2,700 migrant workers come to Maine to help with a variety of harvests between July and December, and also live mostly in congregant settings, sharing living space and bathrooms. As the need to find a solution for caring for the migrant population who may be COVID-positive arose, the program for homeless seemed to be a good fit.

Many of the traveling workers stay in group housing provided by the grower, or at hotels. Under the program, workers are tested and then put in one of the hotels that has contracted with MaineHousing to quarantine if they test positive.

"We already had businesses in place" for the housing, Lord said. "Working with migrant labor is new to us, but it's been exciting and very rewarding. They come here with no family, no support."

It started in mid-July as about 400 workers came to the state from Florida and New Jersey for the blueberry harvest. About 40 of them tested positive for COVID-19 and were housed at the Rodeway Inn in Bangor, Lord said.

The program is now preparing for about 400 workers who will come to Washington and Hancock counties for the wreath and spruce-tipping season. Lord said the Ramada Inn, in Bangor, has contracted to provide quarantine shelter, if needed. Workers are tested when they arrive and put up in the hotels if they test positive, for whatever period of time Maine CDC deems necessary.

Aside from the blueberry harvest, broccoli and apple harvests were relatively quiet for the program.

A hotel in Presque Isle was contracted for workers who came for the Aroostook County broccoli harvest, but no one tested positive.

Lewiston quarantine shelter was put aside for workers who came for the apple harvest, but it "got limited use," Lord said.

A multi-organization effort

She said the program couldn't have worked without the relationships that had been forged with the state agencies and local community agencies to help make it happen. "It's not MaineHousing alone, it's about all the organizations that came together," she said.

One that's been essential is the nonprofit Mano en Mano, which provides support for the state's Latinx population, as well as farmworkers. The blueberry workers, for instance, spoke Spanish creole; the apple-pickers are largely Jamaican. Mano en Mano provides onsite support for those quarantined at the hotels, providing support that ranges from making sure health needs are met, providing translation services and making sure food is culturally correct.

Another benefit of the program is that it provides business for hotels that have been hit hard by the pandemic. Lord said the ones under contract are those that cater more to business travelers, than ones in resort areas.

Steve Hewins, CEO of HospitalityMaine, said the program and others prompted by the pandemic, have helped.

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, many hotels, motels and inns in Maine have been safely housing essential workers, homeless individuals and families, and even positive COVID-19 patients," he told Mainebiz. "This has been a small positive for the lodging industry, and for some a lifeline literally keeping their businesses afloat."

Lord said that once the crisis is past, there may be takeaways that could become permanent. "But right now we have to stay focused on what we're doing now," she said.

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