Farmworker housing unveiled

Supervisor Don Horsley has led the effort and was joined by Blue House Farm owner Ryan Casey and POST representatives for a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, Sept. 18.

“When I thought about farming here about five years ago, I saw a whole set of challenges ahead of me and one of those challenges was a labor shortage,” Casey said, adding that he attributes the labor shortage to a lack of housing. “It became clear that for me to have a future farming here on the coastside I was going to have to proactively provide some housing for my employees.”

Casey employs about 30 workers at Blue House Farm, where more than 50 organic fruit and vegetables are harvested and sold locally. Many of those workers are not currently living in the “greatest conditions,” Casey said, and they have to commute from around the county and as far away as Santa Cruz.

“[The new housing] will have a dramatic effect on my crew and the stability of labor for me ... so this is quite an upgrade in terms of the condition of living as well as the commute,” Casey said. “Farming takes a lot of hands and without those hands in the field, it all falls apart. So this housing is really critical to my future, the future of my workers and the farm.”

In 2017, the Board of Supervisors approved 300,000 in Measure K funds for two of the four units at Blue House Farm. Measure K is a half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2016.

“The other two units were a direct investment by me and Blue House Farm and it’s an investment I wouldn’t have been able to make without the funding for the original two,” Casey said. “And a lot of the infrastructure, plumbing, septic, electric and utilities were paid for through the Measure K money.”

POST is also partnering with the San Mateo Resource Conservation District to build a reservoir on site that will strengthen water security for the farm and also enhance stream flows within San Gregorio Creek for threatened and endangered steelhead trout and coho salmon, according to a press release.

The four units with 12 total bedrooms will be occupied by Blue House Farm workers in about four to six weeks, Casey said. He also plans to landscape around the homes and plant a row of hedges for privacy.

The new housing at Blue House Farm is one of seven farmworker housing projects funded by the county, and there are four additional ones in the pipeline, Horsley said.

Over the summer, the county and POST teamed up to rehabilitate the rundown Red House at Cloverdale Coastal Ranches. It’s now home to an extended family of nine.

Blue House Farm encompasses 60 acres of permanently protected agriculture land that is owned by POST. The nonprofit has preserved more than 75,700 acres of land in the last 40 years and has increasingly focused on building and preserving housing for farmworkers on that land.

“In San Mateo County alone, we have lost 35 percent of our farmland over the last 30 years. Through our Farmland Futures Initiative, POST is reversing this trend for the benefit of all. It’s a complex challenge that involves the land acquisition, and the protection and strategic investments like farmworker housing, to make a thriving local farm operation possible,” POST President Walter T. Moore said in the release. “Local farms not only add to the beauty of our region, but well-managed farmland plays a vital role in the health of our environment, our economy and our people. We hope that these new housing units will go some way to making life more comfortable for workers in this industry.”

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102

Note to readers: This story has been changed. The Board of Supervisors approved $300,000 in Measure K funds for the Blue House Farm project, not $30,000.