This hidden housing crisis threatens the future of farming

[Music] with 40 miles of steep Bluffs and sandy beaches the San Mateo County Coast is a paradise from above multi-million dollar homes nestled between Farms paint a picture of Scenic Wonder but if we look closer there's a harsh reality that not even this view can hide a secret that was easy to keep until January 23rd when prosecutors say a disgruntle farm worker opened fire on fellow workers at two mushroom Farms mushroom seven people were killed in the mass shooting all Farm Workers authorities say 66 year old Chong Li Zhao killed four of his co-workers at California Terror garden and then drove to his former job at Concord farms and killed three other people he used to work with Zhao told the investigators he was upset over working long hours a breaking point for him might have been a 100 repair bill for damaged equipment as authorities investigated the tragedy they were confronted with the secret deplorable conditions that Farm Workers and their families were living in days after the shooting San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller visited the site it's basically a storage shed he posted photos on Twitter they show a gathering space with plywood for floors walls made of plastic camping stoves for cooking horrible horrific deplorable conditions we saw basically what looked like sheds storage containers that people were living in no installation no running water nor would you or you would ever want to prepare food it's a mess Kyle OSHA is looking into workplace safety and health violations as well as labor violations since some workers say they were being paid below minimum wage ABC 7 News spent multiple days in the San Mateo County Coast searching for answers so nobody here pays rent how do these workers fall through the cracks of labor laws and basic housing standards and did frustration over living and working conditions lead to this tragedy turns out that social services agencies have known about these conditions for years to them this was no secret this is nothing new for us we on a regular basis were there at least once a week for the past three years giving resources giving food giving their rain gear whatever we can do to make a difference economically non-profits like Allah De La Costa Sur have been advocating for better housing for Farm Workers for years Farms allow these groups to go onto their properties and provide resources for workers these agencies know the living conditions are bad but they worry about the reality of reporting it the site could get shut down the residents evicted they could easily end up homeless as a social worker for five years I many times walked into situations where um there were concerning living conditions and then you're faced with the reality that if I make this report or if I tell this family to make this report then they are just not going to have any housing available to them it's a catch-22 generated by the high cost of housing Housing Industry is very expensive halfway is very expensive that's why you're Farm Workers you know they pretty much live anywhere anywhere anywhere they can they're renting a small space you know the garage in the living room they renting a couch no he has a place to sleep and that's it we went to the small Plaza on Half Moon Bay's Main Street this is where Farm Workers passed the time to them this space is like a living room until it's time to sleep cultural celebrations this is what they hang out people get together here to socialize with all the community members because they're not able to go where they sleep they only go there to sleep do people have a place to spend the night yes do they have a proper place to live some how many of the Farm Workers who live in this area live in crowded conditions most of the Farm Workers that live in this area live in crowded conditions so because the rents are so high two families rent one place so that they can afford the cost I know families who live in trailers and they pay a thousand dollars a month is the only way that they can afford to actually pay for it like the rest of the Bay Area Half Moon Bay Pescadero and other communities along the San Mateo County Coast face a house in crunch an average one-bedroom list for nearly twenty five hundred dollars Out Of Reach for a farm worker making less than thirty thousand dollars a year Farm Workers not only live in the Farms crowded some really bad conditions but also live in our community they rent an apartment they rent a house but they rent per room so they get together with two or three other families and they rent a room so there's a parents Plus either one two or three kids because I live in a room in a garage Joaquin Jimenez is vice mayor of Half Moon Bay and the farm worker program director for alas he estimates there are about 2 000 Farm Workers in Half Moon Bay at least half need better housing from Bayside culture Community farming ranching fishing so every decade we see less Farm Workers in our community less farmers in the community reality is that the lack of housing is now transforming the economy around Half Moon Bay history has hit in recent years in 2018 this industry grossed an estimated 150 million dollars those numbers plummeted by 2021 to 98 million dollars now both farmers and Farm Workers say they're struggling to survive we lose our Farm Workers farming industry of the coast is going to disappear and the key is to build housing we need a housing in 2017 San Mateo County had 241 Farms that was one-third less than just five years earlier by 2019 only 81 Farms remained many left because they simply can't find Farm Workers that can afford to live in the area Farm Workers earn less than 50 percent of the poverty level in one of the most expensive places to live in the country this is not like it used to be BJ Burns is one of those Farmers still hanging on his family has owned Bianchi flowers for four generations I grow pumpkins flowers and old hay now he makes money year round as a so you're only renting here to Farm Workers no I'm not going to say that I started out doing that but what do you do when you've got a farm worker family and all of a sudden they got a chance to make more money doing something else and they're living here do I throw them out what do I do [Applause] we're headed to the farmworker trailers that I have how many do you have I have seven I was approached to house some workers and that's how I started doing it how many do you currently have here you got probably a total of everybody on the ranch is probably 60 of us but not all of them work here no I got two I got a part-time guy that works and then I got three permanent guys that were how much are you charging them it varies I I don't want to get into it because then it just starts a lot of you know it varies what's the range like I said I think from like 1200 up to roughly 1700 there might be you know two or three people that are breaking that up besides the seven trailer homes for families Bianchi flowers also has two Barrack style homes for single men Ramon Perez is a foreman at Bianchi flowers he lives at one of the homes with his wife and two kids see he showed us his home so you've lived here for how many years over 25 years okay and how much do you pay for rent nothing he provided their rent for the workers can you show us around yes well this is the kitchen the TV and we got two bathrooms this is not how many workers live though not all the bosses provide a good housing afterwards Burns agreed to show us the home for single men I have 10 workers here five rooms and the conditions are going to be different here than was in the family's trailers there's a lot of wear and tear here you'll see here that there's some floors that need to be repaired from wear and tear of the of the linoleum how much are Farm Workers paying to live here here they pay 300 a month everything here works yeah oh yeah all the refrigerators the stoves micro whatever they got works if they don't they tell me and we replace them we're not going to abuse them we're not going to have them live here and uh just to collect rent I'm not going to do that but there is a cost to take care of these houses I'm in a big cost to take care of Jesus has lived here for six years even though he doesn't work on Bianchi flowers what do you think about living here it's good yeah it's good it's good you would like to sleep in a three-star hotel but it you can't afford it it's too much everything Jesus owns is in this room packed to the ceiling are his belongings and tools along with his roommates inside a drawer he keeps two Ziploc bags they stack of photos this is a glimpse into his dreams you bought this in Mexico so when you go back that's what you're going to work on with the little that he makes working at a nearby farm he pays for rent and food the rest he sends to Mexico to buy tools hoping to open a business one day his family keeps him going those are your daughters wow that one doesn't know you in person you've never met her yeah what's her name 26 and 18. yesterday you've never met her in person when days get tough and this room gets cold he goes back to this drawer you put them away see and that's your dream go back to Mexico one day to live a good life over there I'd love to have a better place for all of them but I can't afford it either sure I'd like to get new ones but uh you know that's that's expensive and you gotta have the the revenue to do that you know so we try to do what we can do that's that's what we're here try to survive the County's Department of Environmental Health inspects housing sites but not all of them only those with five or more Farm Workers require a permit smaller properties are outside the scope of inspectors as are those not registered with the County housing program if no one complains they remain hidden they remain secret San Mateo County officials say neither California Terror Garden nor Concord Farms were permitted for employee housing these people were like family to US housing our Bianchi flowers is inspected every year Burns is also the president of the San Mateo County Farm Bureau he said the bureau didn't know people lived at their Farms where the shootings took place we didn't realize what was going on there we we don't really know that the people there we don't associate with us they've never come to Farm Bureau and we were totally surprised at what was going on in there Farm Workers are also afraid to report poor living conditions mostly because of their immigration status more than half the Farm Workers in this County are undocumented they live in the shadows Farm Workers sometimes are afraid about speaking up if someone has to ask their landlord to fix something they're going to hesitate to bring it up to light because they don't want to put their house in in Jeopardy for anything it's time for them to speak up but it's also time for them to be heard Martinez has worked in farms for 22 years he has two jobs to provide for his family his daughter who's a college student hopes to become an immigration lawyer one day to help this community foreign eight families lived at California Terror Garden they paid about 300 in rent The Operators of the mushroom farm dispute accounts that people lived in deplorable conditions they say State officials inspected the mobile homes after the shooting the units were red tagged and the residents had to move out California Terror Garden is working now with local officials to build permanent regulated housing on another part of the farm San Mateo County has also set up a task force to inspect all the farm worker housing along the coast but bringing housing up to standards is expensive we have a moment here in San Mateo County to really do something that will strengthen our agricultural economy supervisors approved 750 thousand dollars to house the families affected by the shooting that covers only one year San Mateo County has a loan program for landowners to build or refurbish housing for Farm Workers but officials say they need help from the state to meet the need the county cannot solve this problem and it's simply we don't have the resources out of the 36 Farms that I know two were successfully able to add housing to their farms in the last 15 years that I've been here and I have witnessed also the places that I visit where the mattresses are on the side of the living room which is also the dining room and often also the kitchen and there's mattresses on the side because they put them down at night for an extra space for people to sleep Jimenez is searching for Solutions we met him at this old Nursery that closed in 2019. this property rate has a lot a lot of potential so as a possibility for community members to start their own business and as a nursery owner to be a distribution center a possibility to to build you know farmworker housing so yes think about it you work and live at the same location but with proper housing it should not be a tragedy you know to make change happen you know should not take no seven people to lose their lives to make things like this happen it is unfortunate that many people try to ignore what is happening in their communities Jimenez is also looking at Lots owned by the city that are big enough to build or more [Music] the dream is to build more homes especially for Farm Workers similar to this complex moonridge this is an affordable housing community built by mid pen housing the associate director of development Andrew bilak gave us a tour of their site it's 160 units at some point the people who got at least to live here were Farm Workers but at this point they may be construction workers they may be doing other types of jobs because of how hard hit the industry is right now yeah I think that's definitely that's definitely possible there were also some people who moved in here who weren't Farm Workers to start but at least 50 percent of the people when they started here were Farm Workers and that circumstance may change for some people site has a basketball court a soccer field a community center and a child care center but there are 240 people still waiting to rent a unit here midpen is developing multiple projects from Petaluma to Santa Cruz and this Housing Development near Half Moon Bay Mid Penn itself is working on another project just 10 miles north of here in Moss Beach which will be 71 units and include 18 units that will be reserved for farmworker households I think we need to you know continue to serve other people not just Farm Workers I think Farm Workers are a key part of the equation but I think we want to make sure we're serving you know broader people who need housing as well since the need is so great having access to an affordable home is really just a foundation for having better health for having a higher quality of life or being able to accumulate intergenerational wealth and pass that on to your kids in a place where it seems like time stands still time is actually running out for the agricultural industry agriculture is going downhill in this in this Coast in San Mateo County I'd say in the next 10 to 15 years there'll be very very little agricultural in this Coast if we don't do something now after the mass shooting County officials are feeling the pressure to do something it's hard enough right now actually for farmers and ranchers on the coast to make it so there's actually a very strong argument to go ahead and have the county provide this housing that farmers and ranchers focus on Farming and ranching and then provide equity and ensure the public health of Farm Workers that no one gets into a situation where our most vulnerable slip through the cracks persona apartment now that the secret is out Farm Workers are hoping to feel valued and they say housing is the start if you or someone you know is in need of housing or information on housing rights you can go to abc7news.com take action you will also find information on donating to organizations offering resources for people impacted by the Half Moon Bay shooting

Channel: ABC7 News Bay Area

Views: 54,036

Keywords: abc7 news, abc news, new story, abc, half moon bay shooting, shooting half moon bay california, farmworker housing half moon bay, farmworker housing crisis california, California Terra Garden, Concord Farms, california shooting, mass shooting, Chunli Zhao, san mateo county farms

Id: abwFlqt32xs

Length: 21min 5sec (1265 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 08 2023