Farmworkers struggle with higher rents, vulnerable to hazardous living conditions in Half Moon Bay

Two Half Moon Bay farmworkers, Uriel and Vicente, shared their own experiences during a presentation of the report at the Half Moon Bay City Council’s meeting Sept. 16. Both men weren’t interviewed for the report, but said their experiences mirrored much of what was discussed within it. 

“I want you to know that many of us in the community have struggled with high rent. I’m lucky now to live in affordable housing, but honestly, if that housing didn’t exist, I don’t know where my son and I would be living,” Vicente said through a translator. “I’m here tonight to ask you to please keep fighting for more affordable housing.” 

Conversations around farmworker housing are particularly pressing in Half Moon Bay, after a January 2023 mass shooting took the lives of seven and subsequently exposed derelict living conditions for many families.

One housing project, at 880 Stone Pine Road, is well underway, and another, at 555 Kelly Ave., is still in the logistics phase, and supporters have expressed concern around the amount of time the project is taking. 

Aside from direct construction, other positive actions that the city and county can take to promote habitable farmworker housing include supporting farmworker organizing, implementing tenant protections tailored to farmworkers, proactive rental inspections and the advancement of community ownership models, Chang said. 

Half Moon Bay is currently grappling with a serious structural budget deficit that can make it challenging to move forward with city priorities, Councilmember Deborah Penrose said, but she expressed hope that the City Council’s previous actions would help to create some of the needed change. 

“Our city is suffering from financial difficulties, a structural deficit, [that] makes it difficult to do just about anything,” she said. “I’m hoping the work we’ve put in up to this point has not been wasted, and we continue to move forward with our rental registration and our minimum wage and all of the measures we’ve made to try and get affordable housing in this city.” 

Uriel encouraged councilmembers to focus both on creating more accessible affordable housing and regulating the housing in which farmworkers are already living. 

“I also ask that as you continue your efforts to extend affordable housing, you protect the rights of all tenants,” he said. “I have many friends whose rent is too high, and in order to afford a place to live, they are forced to share small spaces with multiple people.”