17 Jan 2017

“These kids are our country.” Local Dreamers fear losses under Trump


What is freedom? To Bernardo Pereira, it’s the new way the world looks at him as a college student with legal documents, including a driver’s license. To Lorena Calvillo, it’s her future career as a civil engineer, made possible by legal documents that give her the right to work – and her college tuition to boot.

Pereira and Calvillo are “Dreamers,” first-generation students whose parents brought them over from Mexico as infants. Growing up in Pescadero, they knew they were different from some of their other young friends. No matter how hard they worked in school or how powerful their aspirations, the prospect of normalcy – a legal job with benefits, a legal driver’s license, even a legally purchased home someday – would elude them forever.

That changed when DACA came along. President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program offered temporary work permits and IDs to 728,000 young people who happened to be born in other countries, but were in every other way indistinguishable from other Americans. Puente has processed up to 29 DACA permits for local youth since 2012 and renewed most of them, some for a third term. Most of the youth cohort are in college now, on their way to fulfilling the kinds of dreams that any U.S. teenager aspires to.

“It’s been really helpful to have DACA,” says Pereira. “The ID means nothing to me personally – I already know who I am – but to the world it means everything. I’m identified as someone.” Pereira, whose name was changed for this story, is a 22-year-old college student studying art and business. He was never going to enroll in college without his DACA permit.

Now on the eve of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, DACA is facing a likely repeal. Trump himself has sent mixed messages about DACA, praising Dreamers in a recent interview while vowing to cancel all of President Obama’s executive actions, including those that would protect them and their families from deportation.

The uncertainty is the worst part, says Puente Executive Director Rita Mancera. “Young people want to know, are their employers poised to fire them right away? I honestly tell them I don’t know – but Puente will find ways to support them regardless. They can count on us.”

It will become clear just how much their lives will be upended in the months ahead. Puente has already renewed as many DACA permits as possible, and is case-managing every youth. “We have told them: if you get a letter or other information, bring it to us and we’ll figure it out together,” adds Mancera.

Puente has spent considerable staff time and resources obtaining Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) agency recognition, which makes it possible to assist participants with immigration needs. Three Puente staff members and one volunteer have completed the training and received certification to file legal papers on behalf of clients who need visas, green card renewals, and DACA permits.

Lorena Calvillo applied for DACA in high school, just before enrolling in classes at San Francisco State University in fall 2013. Her permit expires in October 2018, seven months short of her expected graduation date.

“I am worried. I try not to think about it – just see what happens. If I didn’t have DACA, I don’t know what I would do. I would definitely not be able to work,” says Calvillo, who is working toward a BS in civil engineering with a concentration in construction management. It’s not a field a lot of women go into, but Calvillo has always been determined. She recently flew to Philadelphia to attend the largest women’s conference for engineers in the country.

Having a DACA permit made it possible for Calvillo to apply for financial aid though the California Dream Act, and she lives near campus thanks to a special financial gift Puente helped arrange. Losing her DACA permit would mean losing her financial aid – and her job as a restaurant hostess. That job is important to her whole family, because it helps her parents pay their bills.

But even without DACA, Calvillo would find a way to pay for it all. She hopes to find work with a company that would sponsor her on the path to citizenship, and is already applying for an internship with a top company in San Francisco.

“I think it’s a bit unfair,” she says. “The fact that here aren’t options for people like me who want to work – it’s like, ‘Okay, you’ve been here for all these years, but now were going to shut you guys out.’”

It has become clear, moving forward, that many DACA youth will need more support from Puente because they won’t have the ability to earn that extra cash.

“There are going to be some people who are going to retreat into themselves. But others have already developed a resilience. They have been a part of the world out there, and have been just like other people,” says Mancera.

They’ve earned respect and independence. You can take away a document, but DACA has already transformed these youths into fighters who know what they deserve: freedom.

I think people like Lorena are going to become advocates for other Dreamers,” says Mancera. “These kids are our country.”

To support Puente’s efforts on behalf of DACA youth, click here.

10 Jan 2017

County report: Coastside needs 1,000 new homes for ag workers

For a clear picture of the housing crisis on the South Coast, meet Mira and Carlos Lopez. They and their three school-age children have not had a home since they were evicted from their apartment in September when their landlord needed to renovate the building. Mira’s brother Miguel was living with them too.

The family has bounced around Pescadero since then, sleeping in their car, parked outside the home of Lina’s sister. At the dawn of 2017, they had no prospects for permanent housing. The children go to local schools; their parents work in local agriculture.

“We tried to find a place for six people, but it was impossible,” says Rita Mancera, Executive Director of Puente. Finding a whole house for rent on the South Coast, at affordable prices, is surpassingly rare. Mancera has personally called everyone she can think of with even a spare room. Puente paid to put the family up in a hotel in Half Moon Bay a couple of nights and a camp in Pescadero another couple of nights, but it was not sustainable and the parents wanted to provide a more permanent place to their children. Their car has been their solution for almost three months now. (Their names have been changed for this story).

The lack of affordable housing stock is one aspect of the urgent need for long-term, high-quality farm worker housing on the South Coast. And the need is particularly desperate for families who are doubled- and tripled-up in dilapidated trailers, or one-bedrooms built for far fewer people.

To many, the living conditions some local families endure would be unimaginable. But they withstand them and will not complain for fear of being evicted, and because there are so few alternatives for better or more spacious housing near their jobs.

The roots of this issue cut across economic, regulatory and political terrain. The widely-acknowledged problem has been quantified for the very first time in a county-sponsored Agricultural Workforce Housing Needs Assessment, which can be read here.

The county released the study this fall based on surveys of farm owners and more than 300 face-to-face interviews with agricultural workers living on the Coastside (interviews which Puente helped facilitate).

Among the highlights:

  • The need for safe, modern housing for farm workers and their families is much larger than you might suspect: the report calls for 1,020 to 1,140 housing units along the Coastside, incorporating the South Coast and the greater Half Moon Bay area.
  • The most pressing need is for family housing, although single male workers are living in barracks that must be modernized or replaced. Most of the workforce lives here with family members, and two-thirds have lived in San Mateo County for 11 years or more. They are deeply entwined in our communities, yet some families are living in outdated housing meant for a temporary, seasonal workforce. Others are living in affordable family housing in Half Moon Bay.
  • Roughly 50 percent of the agricultural workforce is undocumented, and many are part of mixed-status families where parents, siblings and children have a different immigration status.
  • Some agricultural employees feel their employer-provided housing impedes their job prospects. The coupling of work to a worker’s living situation makes him or her less likely to seek newer housing elsewhere, because they won’t want to give up their jobs.
  • Farm owners strongly desire a solution. Some of them are open to building new housing but don’t have the capital or wherewithal to navigate the legal and regulatory process, which can take years. Other farmers lease their land and don’t control the decision on whether to build.

With everyone on the same page about the problems, the discussion turns to solutions. “We’re in the phase of understanding what can be done, now that we’ve outlined the problem,” says Kerry Lobel, Puente’s Strategic Projects Advisor. She says the county seems committed to breaking down financial and regulatory barriers that have impeded new housing on the South Coast for the last 50 years. Supervisor Don Horsley’s office has made solving the Coastside housing crisis a top priority, and his office is coordinating with county Housing, Planning and Environmental Health staff to tackle their share of the solution.

However, Lobel adds that if officials are truly committed to solving the problem, they will probably need to muster the finances to do so. Nonprofit housing developers that have investigated the possibility of building on the South Coast have concluded it’s a losing financial proposition – there just isn’t enough federal or state matching money to make it possible to subsidize a project of that scale.

“The county has to decide if it really wants to invest dollars to solve this problem. If it does, it can,” Lobel says, citing the example of Napa County, which built dormitory complexes for agricultural workers and continues to subsidize their rent, regardless of immigration status.

Both farm owners and farm workers recognize that lack of housing is a significant strain on the agricultural economy. “It’s a burden on both sides economically. Without housing, employers are having difficulty retaining and recruiting good workers,” explains Heather Peters, a county Housing & Community Development Specialist.

Under leadership from Supervisor Horsley’s office, the county has greatly streamlined county regulations that govern construction of farm labor housing, and waived a lot of permit fees. The county has hired an agricultural ‘ombudsman’ to help answer questions about building on the coast, and established regular Coastside office hours for the Planning Department, to save people a long trip to Redwood City.

The county also funded a pilot program for the rehabilitation and replacement of existing trailers, but the program has had few takers on the South Coast. Lack of potable water is often an issue, so the Planning Department is now using GIS to explore potentially feasible locations for new housing on parcels zoned for agricultural housing.

There’s also the question of what to build. A dormitory complex? Cottages? A manufactured home community? The county has hired two experts to review best practices for farm labor housing in other parts of California, and report back.

The simplest-seeming ideas have not panned out. Taking note of the fact that so many homes on the South Coast are vacation homes, and unoccupied for most of the year, Puente has proposed forming a spinoff nonprofit that would rent out the empty homes to local families. The proposal has not yet gained traction with potential funders. Mancera thought to house the Lopez family by placing them in such a home, but she was turned down by the homeowners she approached. The county has set aside money for a trailer rehabilitation and replacement program, but the program has had few takers so far.

A new administration in Washington is likely to create uncertainty around immigration policy, which could strongly affect the stability of the local workforce and, in turn, the future of housing on the South Coast, says Lobel.

The South Coast is defined by, and depends on, the people who work in agriculture. So are local schools. Fundamentally, the housing issue is an economic one. Lobel says we ignore it at our peril.

“Think of the number of people disappearing from our town, all the kids disappearing from our schools, and the restaurant workers, and the farm and nursery workers disappearing from their places of work – this paints a clear and devastating picture of our future if we fail to act now.”

To support Puente’s housing efforts, donate here or contact Kerry Lobel at klobel@mypuente.org.

05 Jan 2017

Welcome to New Puente Staff Members

Madeleine (Maddy) Kane is joining the Puente team as the Community Health Manager. She has previously worked in Redwood City/North Fair Oaks, CA and Sololá, Guatemala supporting community health, education, family engagement and grassroots community empowerment. To her, healthy individuals are created in a healthy community, and she is excited to join a team that supports community in so many ways. She is passionate about the intersections of health, justice, and policy, and supported Puente’s Community Health Survey in 2014 as an intern to create a more accurate representation of the demographics and health statistics for South Coast residents. She has worked for organizations as varied as Partners in Health, Puente de Amistad (Guatemala), and Redwood City 2020, and graduated with a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University. She hopes to always be working with, giving back to, and inspired by communities as dynamic, strong, and beautiful as the South Coast.

Adriana Serrano is joining the Puente team as the Economic Security Manager. She has been an active member of the South Coast community for many years. She received her bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz in Latin American Studies. Adriana is passionate about living, working, and raising her family in such a unique community setting, such as our South Coast and believes in creating strong communities. It makes sense that Adriana’s path has brought her to Puente, as she has always helped friends and family navigate critical needs and resources.

Ulises Zatarain is joining the Puente team as the Development Director. He brings over 10 years of experience in Institutional Advancement and Community Development to Puente. Throughout his career Ulises has implemented a variety of economic development, educational, and social service programs for local and statewide institutions, as well as many non profit organizations. Most recently, Ulises was Program Director at the U.S National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. overseeing youth education and public outreach programs; implementing a variety of institutional funding initiatives, and donor engagement campaigns. He was also VP of Community Programs for the Resurrection Project in Chicago where he oversaw education, economic development, and community engagement. He was intricately involved in diversifying, strengthening, and exponentially growing funding support for programs during his tenure. Ulises served as an Adjunct Faculty professor, teaching Literature, History, and Humanities courses, at St. Augustine College in Chicago. He has a Master of Arts from Northeastern Illinois University, and graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University.