September, 2011 / MercuryNews.com / Julia Scott
Farmworkers sue Pescadero farmer over unsafe living conditions
A sign posted by county health officials warns that the Pescadero barracks occupied by farm laborers and their families is uninhabitable on May 20, 2010. (Handout photo).
Just miles from the bustling metropolis of San Jose, farmworkers find themselves living in unhealthy homes, but CRLA advocates are working with local community members to change all that.
PESCADERO -- It was bad enough when the leaking roof soaked her clothes and bedspread. But then slugs started coming in through the floor and rooting around on the wet carpet.
That was how Micaela Rosas lived in a dilapidated trailer she rented for eight years from a San Mateo County farmer. Now she's suing him.
"I was so scared, I wore a mask to protect myself, and I tied my socks with rubber bands at night," said Rosas, in Spanish, of the mold, slugs, and holes in the bottom of the trailer where field grasses poked in. " I put tissue in my ears to keep the slugs out."