b"P u e n t e l a u n c h e s i t s f i r s t a f f o r d a b l e h o u s i n g p r o j e c tIn July 2024, Puente announced that it had purchased a 13.5-acre property in downtown Pescadero. The property, aformer wholesale plant nursery and former home of Pescadero Union High School in the 1920s, was converted intofarmworker housing in the 1980s. The site is currently a multifamily residential building for low-income residents.Puentes goal is to keep it that way for years to come. Our goal is to renovate the place and to provide a model of farmworker housing in the community, says RitaMancera, Executive Director of Puente. The lack of safe, dignified, and affordable housing has long been the biggestongoing crisis in the area, she says. But of all the years that we have been talking about housing, few have doneanything about it. And waiting was not a choice anymore. Puente intends to renovate the shared kitchen and bathrooms, replace the roof, install a water treatment system,and make improvements to the septic system, among other crucial repairs.The limited number of units makes the project too small for nonprofit developers to take on, so Puente has formed anew wholly owned subsidiary, Puente Housing Solutions LLC, to tackle this first project with the support offoundations and individuals. We think that we have the trust of this community, and the trust of our philanthropic partners, to handle theseimprovements, says Mancera. Puente will enlist an architectural firm and property manager, among other partners, to get the project off theground. Tenants and community members will also be key stakeholders.Elvia Aguilar has been one of those tenants for 12 years with her husband and two daughters. She and her spouse are both farmworkers, and they live in a two-bedroom unit. KnowingPuente is the new landlord is a huge relief, she says. Before Puente bought it, we were concerned that someone else would buy it and make it unaffordable and tell us tenants to move.Now we know that they're going to try to keep rent affordable and were not going to have to move out. Furthering housing development, especially farm labor housing, is a cornerstone of Puentes 2021-2025 Strategic Plan. If this pioneering effort goes well, Puente could play a role in easinga crisis that continues to undermine the socio-economic security of the entire community. I t r e a l l y i s a n e c e s s i t y i n t h i s c o m m u n i t y . N o t j u s t f o r m e , b u tf o r o t h e r s a s w e l l , b e c a u s e i f w e d o nt h a v e a p l a c e t o r e n t , w eh a v e n o w h e r e t o g o .- Felix Galindo, Tenant22"