A BIPOC review of the 2022 CCRPC ECOS Report
There’s a high likelihood that the person reading this is a resident of Chittenden county, or more specifically, an urban center such as Burlington, Winooski, South Burlington, and others. I make such a claim because I recently stumbled upon a scorecard from 2021 provided by the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, which gives insight into where and how BIPOC communities live. The ECOS scorecard, which is released annually, stands for Environment; Community; Opportunity; Sustainability. One statistic that stood out to me was the comparable rates of immigration to Chittenden county amongst white vs nonwhite individuals; a whopping 99.7% of population growth over the last 10 years is that of BIPOC individuals. Meanwhile, in a rural, agriculture-centric county such as Franklin County (which accounts for 24% of Vermont’s agricultural sales per the VT Council of Rural Development), BIPOC populations have seen an even greater shift, with white populations actually leaving the area at a greater percentage than in Chittenden amongst an overall +2,220 population change. This gives rise to the question, who are these BIPOC populations outside of urban areas, why did they choose to live rural, and what can be done to better support them?
Franklin County, as already stated, is extremely agriculture-centric. It is the 59th highest milk-producing county in the entire United States, at over $129 Million in exports in 2017 per the USDA. A 2010 report indicates that dairy farms in Vermont are supported by up to 1500 migrant workers, and that number has surely grown significantly over the last decade (VTMFSP.org). Blue collar farm labor attracts migrants for better or for worse, due to relatively low governmental and managerial oversight.
The caveat to these employment opportunities is that the working conditions in dairy production are less than ideal. Per the organization Migrant Justice, 40% of dairy workers make less than the state minimum wage forcing 15% of them to live in overcrowded homes with little access to sufficient heat. 40% also report having no days off, and another 20% claim to be victims of wage theft at some point in their employment. Much of this is due to the fact that 96% of dairy farms in Franklin County are family owned and operated. This data indicates a trend of family farms hiring desperate new Vermonters only to exploit their labor for low, under-the-table pay.
Thankfully, some large buyers of milk products have agreed to incorporate Migrant Justice’s code of conduct into their supply chain, ensuring that workers are paid fairly and work under decent conditions. However, with Franklin having over $100 million in milk exports alone, there is a lot of work left to be done to ensure all migrant workers in Vermont, including those in other aspects of agriculture apart from dairy, are treated fairly.
One other major issue facing the rural BIPOC community in Vermont is housing availability. Between 2016 and 2020, 87% of homes built in Vermont were built in areas “planned for growth” (CCRPC, 2020). This refers mainly to apartment buildings such as those by the old Burlington College campus, or the UVM sponsored development in South Burlington that was announced recently. These lands are proposed by construction companies and approved by local municipalities, often years in advance of any work actually beginning. While new housing opportunities are great for renters who live in these areas (by driving down rents for existing, poorly maintained housing), what this statistic also shows is the lack of rural developments. Workers in the Agriculture sector, particularly, see little change in three important aspects of their lives: housing alternatives, rent competition, and importantly, opportunities for home ownership. As if it was not already hard enough for a new POC Vermonter due to language, credit, discriminatory barriers, et cetera, the absence of new constructions outside of urban settings maintains a status quo of high rents for old units, that often end up being a sunk cost to renters thanks to already poor wages, while barring them from planning for future investments in themselves and their communities.
Vermont as a whole, along with local municipal governments, can do more to serve new and existing residents. Better oversight of small businesses and who they employ can help increase essential worker’s quality of lives. Promoting development of shared zoning buildings, as well as units available for purchase instead of just rentals, can help everyone invest in their own future.
