Year after shooting, Half Moon Bay reflects on pain and progress

They were also there to reflect on the year that followed, when, reeling from the senselessness of gun violence, the city and county realized that squalid and untenable living conditions many coastal farmworkers and their families were living in had gone unknown and unregulated.

After the shooting, which occurred at two separate farms off the Half Moon Bay coast, 19 families were displaced from their homes — their living spaces on the farms had been turned into a crime scene. They didn’t return to these homes because of what San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller then termed as “deplorable, heartbreaking” housing situations, sometimes without running water or heat.

“They brought us to the site of the shootings, and we looked at them, and we saw living conditions that embarrassed us, brought shame to us,” Mueller said in a speech at the remembrance event.

“In the days that followed, we asked ‘how is it possible that you could be living like this and we not know about it?’” Mueller said. “So we developed a task force to go out and look at every farm and ranch in the county, to find circumstances where people were living like [the victims] and like their loved ones. In the memory of those we lost, we were going to make sure there weren’t others living in the same circumstance.”

Now, a year has passed since the shooting. Displaced families continue to live in emergency temporary housing, funded by the city of Half Moon Bay and a variety of philanthropic contributions — although the city is still seeking around $450,000 of its $1 million goal.

Two substantial affordable housing projects are in the works and the county is facilitating a third purchase of Bay City Flower Company, also designated for housing, Half Moon Bay Mayor Joaquin Jimenez said.

Earliest move-in dates for some housing units predicted by next fall, he said. One project, at 550 Stone Pine Road, will have 46 units of affordable housing — 28 will be funded by the Joe Serna Jr. Farmworker Grant and 18 still require funding.

‘We are moving fast’

Jimenez said he’s happy with the project’s progress — it’s the first affordable farmworker housing to be built in the area in nearly 25 years, and city staff has been working to expedite the build, obtaining an emergency coastal development permit in December 2023.

“I am happy with the accomplishments. Believe it or not, we are moving fast,” he said.

Of course, it must follow sometimes-convoluted developing and permitting processes, and City Manager Matthew Chidester warned at a Dec. 20 Planning Commission meeting that if development is delayed further, the city will be facing a second housing emergency with the displaced families.

But for Jimenez, who has been advocating for farmworker rights and affordable housing for much of his political career, the deeper frustration is that it took tragedy to inspire change.

“That’s the upsetting part, that you have to take a tragedy … for something we have been talking about for a long time,” he said. “But finally, we are moving.”

In the aftermath of the tragedy, community organizations and nonprofits — many of which, like Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, a Latino cultural arts and programming organization, were already staples of coastside advocacy for farmworker protections — became important avenues for serving displaced families, survivors and other affected individuals.

In one arena, that means supporting housing, with ALAS partnering with Mercy Housing California to propose building 40 units of affordable housing for senior farmworkers at 555 Kelly Ave.

“What’s being done right now is the most we ever seen done on the coastside for affordable housing for farmworkers,” ALAS Executive Director Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga said. “We’re seeing that now, with the construction of 555 Kelly Ave. — ALAS partnering with Mercy to do affordable housing for seniors — housing at Stone Pine Road, the county and city working on that. It’s a huge relief to know there’s going to be housing for these survivors, [families of victims.] It’s huge, it’s critical, it’s important.”

State Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, worked to secure $2 million from the state for the 555 Kelly project in December 2023, he said at the remembrance event, “which will go towards the city’s efforts in planning and adopting affordable senior farmworker housing.”

Adjustments

On a more interpersonal level, ALAS, alongside other organizations like Coastside Hope, has been there for farmworking families with mental health services, housing adjustments, resources and supplies, and general wraparound services.

The farmworkers had been living together on the mushroom farm, and the housing displacement was alienating, Hernandez-Arriaga said. For many of the families, ALAS became like a second home and place of community in the wake of the shooting.

“Our farmworker team was at the mushroom farm an hour before the actual shooting,” she said. “We know the families there, we knew the victims, we know the survivors. This is very personal to us.”

Hernandez-Arriaga also attended the funeral of Marciano Martinez Jimenez in Mexico, representing the Half Moon Bay community and those who couldn’t attend in person. The funerals of the Asian farmworkers and shooting victims were private, she said, but ALAS has also gone to visit the families of the victims and offered services.

Beyond housing conditions and rights issues, the lack of recognition that an Asian farmworking community exists on the coastside is an additional ongoing issue that Half Moon Bay is working to tackle, speakers said at the event.

“I cannot tell you how many people came up to me over this past year and said ‘I had no idea we had a Chinese community here, much less Chinese farmworkers,’” Councilmember Deborah Penrose said during the remembrance event. “It is so critical that we take the blinders off.”

Other needs

Jimenez also acknowledged that while housing issues are gaining more widespread support from the state and county — he’ll be accepting a check for $1,250,000 in housing-related funding from Assemblymember Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, on Jan. 25, he said — the farmworking community has many additional needs that have long gone unaddressed.

Many crimes or working violations on farms go unreported for fear of retaliation, reduced hours or getting fired, he said.

“I want to change that. I them to call 911, give them the power, and empower the farmworkers to make those calls. That’s I want, to make sure they feel safe, and that they can call 911 with no retaliation, no fear,” he said. “It is ridiculous, atrocities happening to farmworkers and never being able to report it.”

Ultimately, community members and leaders who regularly work with the farmworking community have a similar message — they deserve to be empowered, uplifted and feel safe enough to share their experiences and stories in their own voice.

“We need to shift the way we see farmworkers,” Hernandez-Arriaga said. “To really see the strength, for who they are. To see their power, to see them as professionals. There’s so much strength and beauty and power in who they are.”