Summit addresses need for affordable farmworkers housing
The lack of affordable housing for Ventura County’s farmworkers was the focus of panel discussions at a May 8 program in Santa Paula.
“We’re trying to bring awareness to local developers to keep their minds open to serving farmworkers in their projects,” Ken Trigueiro, who sits on the board of House Farm Workers, which put on the event, told the Business Times.
“So, this feels like a way to get everyone to understand the best practices and the lessons learned so they can feel more confident to propose more farmworker-related affordable housing,” said Trigueiro, who is also CEO and president of San Luis Obispo-based People’s Self-Help Housing, a developer of low-income residences.
The annual event was held at the People’s Place, a new, affordable housing development which serves farmworkers and others.
Panels included discussions of building on Ag land and challenges in developing affordable housing in Ventura County.
Linda Braunschweiger, CEO of Housing Trust Fund Ventura County and Housing Land Trust Ventura County, moderated the Ag land panel.
She told the Business Times that funding for affordable housing projects is uncertain given the cuts being implemented by the Trump Administration
“That’s the big question,” she said. “And it’s very scary for us.”
“Where do all these projects in the pipeline find the funding?” Braunschweiger said.
It looks like her nonprofits are going to be able to help, she said.
“We’re going to be announcing some pretty good-sized funding here in the next couple of months,” Braunschweiger said.
It’s due to “local entities recognizing, with the instability at the federal level and Wall Street, to invest local where it’s stable,” she said.
Panelist Dan Parziale, executive director of Mesa Farms, a Ojai nonprofit which offers affordable housing for young adults facing homelessness, ended his remarks on an inspirational note.
“One of the really beautiful things about this work is that all of these big, beautiful, audacious projects started as a thought,” he said.
“And then you get people who believe in it and they throw a ton of energy and resources at it and then it comes to be,” Parziale said.
