Retreat center in Ocean Park proposes housing plan for J-1 students

A proposal by a retreat center would provide much needed housing for J-1 students next summer, but the plan can’t go through without the Old Orchard Beach town council approving an ordinance change.

J-1 students are college students who travel from other countries to the United States on J1 Visas to work seasonal jobs. Typically more than 500 J-1 students arrive to the Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Biddeford area every summer to help fill the demand for seasonal employees. Finding housing for these young people is an ongoing challenge.

Oceanwood Camp and Conference Center, a Christian camp and retreat center located on 100 acres in Ocean Park, has offered to house J-1 students this summer in some of its cabins during the summer tourist season.

Oceanwood Executive Director Tom Bonanno has been working with town officials, including Code Enforcement Officer Rick Haskell and J-1 Coordinator Ann Randall, on a plan.

Bonanno said at a town workshop Thursday night that Oceanwood has been making improvements including regraveling an access road to make sure emergency vehicles can get to the cabins if need be, repairing cabin roofs, and upgrading electricity.

The suggested plan would be to house 44 J-1 students in 11 cabins. Each 16 by 16 foot cabin would house four people, and would be furnished with bedding, as well as storage cubbies and a mini-fridge, said Bonanno. Bathrooms and kitchen facilities would be located in separate buildings.

The arrangement would be different from typical housing for J-1 students, said Randall.

“It’s really more of a communal living type arrangement,” she said, which would give students an opportunity to build community among each other. She noted that Oceanwood is a dry campus,and said there would be one student assigned as a residential assistant who would stay in the “director’s hut” and would receive free rent in exchange for their duties.

Town ordinance currently requires 70 square feet of bedroom space for each seasonal worker, and an ordinance change would have to be made to allow four seasonal workers to sleep in each cabin, as well as have kitchen and bathroom facilities in a separate building.

Councilors Kenneth Blow and Michael Tousignant asked if the proposed ordinance change would allow other summer housing providers to increase the number of J-1 students in bedrooms.

Haskell said the proposed change would only apply to cabin-style housing and not impact other housing currently available in town.

Some councilors voiced concerns about the suggested arrangement.

“How are 44 people going to use the kitchen? Is that going to be a problem,” said Tousignant.

Bonanno said there would be two separate kitchen areas. One that was connected to the bathroom facility and would have a stove, hot plate and refrigerator. Another kitchen would be located in the recreation hall, about 25 yards away, and have a refrigerator, freezer, hot plate, a few microwaves and a toaster oven, he said.

“Have you ever shared a refrigerator at a job that you had with five or six people, let alone forty. I mean, just some of these things seem to be, right from the get-go, not what we want,” said Tousignant.

Randall said that many of the students ate their meals at work.

“They’re not here to make lavish meals. They all have three jobs and they work around the clock,” said Councilor Connor Rague. He said the Oceanwood plan appeared to be a bit of an upgrade to some past housing arrangements for J-1 students.

Haskell said the students also had staggering schedules, so they wouldn’t all be using the facilities at the same time.

Blow asked if the cabins had heat or air conditioning. Bonano said they didn’t, but there were fans. Blow asked how many restrooms there were.

Bonano said the bathrooms were very close to the cabins, likening the distance to that of a dormitory bathroom. He said there were two bathrooms, each with two toilets and two showers.

Blow said he was concerned there weren’t enough bathrooms and showers for 44 people. He said he would be more comfortable with three people or less per cabin.

Councilor Shawn O’Neill said he didn’t have a problem with the kitchen set up, as many J-1 students typically live in hotel rooms.

“I’m uncomfortable with the lack of heat, and the lack of cooling. And I’m uncomfortable with the number of toilets and showers,” he said.

He said that 44 people sharing four toilets and four showers, “just didn’t make sense.”

Tousignant said the housing plan was a commendable idea, but he wasn’t sure it would work logistically.

“The last thing we want to do is have these people to come over here and have a crappy experience because they’re paying all the money they’re making a week,” he said.

 Oceanwood intends on charging $200 a week for J-1 housing. Randall said she believed it was in line with what was being charged for other students, and that employers typically paid a portion of rent.

While Randall couldn’t give concrete numbers on how many employers chipped in toward housing and what they were willing to pay, she agreed at the request of Blow to do some research and get some more solid numbers.

Saco Bay News Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.