Seasonal Workforce Housing

What Is Seasonal Workforce Housing?

Seasonal workforce housing is lodging for people who come to an area for a set season of work. Residents include harvest crews, ski-resort and summer hospitality staff, and fish-processing workers. Housing ranges from dormitories and bunkhouses to shared apartments, converted motels, manufactured-home parks and houses leased by employers.

It is a distinct problem from year-round workforce housing. Demand peaks for a few months, and units that sit empty in the off-season are hard to finance. In resort areas, seasonal workers also compete for housing with tourists, second-home buyers and short-term rentals.

How Seasonal Workforce Housing Works

Seasonal housing is usually provided in one of four ways:

• Employer-provided housing. Resorts, hotels and farms build, buy or master-lease units for their staff. They charge rent or provide it as part of compensation, a form of employer-assisted housing.
• Regulated farmworker housing. Under the H-2A temporary agricultural visa program, employers must provide housing at no cost to H-2A workers, and to U.S. workers in the same jobs, who cannot reasonably return home the same day. Employer-provided housing must meet federal standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or the Department of Labor. Rented lodging and public accommodations must meet local standards, or state or OSHA standards where no local ones apply (20 CFR 655.122).
• Public and nonprofit development. USDA’s Section 516 grants fund farmworker housing built by nonprofits and public agencies. The statute caps this assistance at 90% of a project’s development cost. Housing must normally be suitable for year-round use, but where USDA finds a persistent need, it may fund housing meant only for migrant farmworkers while they are away from home.
• Local occupancy rules. Resort towns attach deed restrictions to homes so that only people who work locally can live in them.

Example

Vail, Colorado, launched its Vail InDEED program in 2017. The town buys permanent deed restrictions from property owners. Each restricted home must be occupied by a household with at least one person who works at least 30 hours a week for a business in Eagle County. The restrictions do not cap prices or rents. According to a 2021 HUD case study, the town typically paid 15% to 20% of a property’s market value for each restriction. It also paid $4.2 million to restrict all 65 apartments at Solar Vail, a building that opened in November 2019 mainly for hotel employees. Most of its apartments are reserved for one hotel’s staff during the ski season.

Criticisms and Limitations

When housing is tied to a job, a worker who quits or is fired can lose their home at the same time. That also gives employers extra leverage over workers. Seasonal units also face a basic financial problem: they must cover a full year of costs with only part-year rent.