Affordable housing for farmworkers is one of the most pressing problems on the South Coast of San Mateo County. Puente de la Costa Sur is taking a step toward addressing this need through plans to renovate an aging apartment building they purchased in 2024 and transform it into a permanently affordable housing development for farm workers, which will be known as Casa de las Flores.

Panelists from Puente de la Costa Sur, two farmworker tenants from Casa de las Flores, and a rural housing development technical assistance provider will share their experiences of learning, collaboration, and community engagement that have moved this project forward. 

Our hope is to inspire other community-based organizations to boldly explore new frontiers, such as housing development, to effectively address the essential needs of their communities.

Moderator

JoAnn Sandoval, Community Organizer, Puente de la Costa Sur

JoAnn Sandoval is the community organizer at Puente de la Costa Sur and a member of the Community Engagement and Public Policy team. In this role, she focuses on leadership development, helping to advance the advocacy skills of passionate community members, including supporting the local grassroots group Del Campo Al Cambio. She is involved in housing advocacy, workers’ rights, and tenants’ rights education. Her work also involves voter education and engagement, representing Puente on the San Mateo County Voter Education and Outreach Advisory Committee. 

Before her time at Puente, JoAnn worked throughout San Mateo County, focusing her efforts on advancing equitable access to the Bay Area’s vast open spaces and parks. Today, she continues these pursuits in her free time. 

Speakers

Rita Mancera, Executive Director, Puente de la Costa Sur

Rita Mancera Hernandez, born in Mexico City and raised in Baja California Sur, began her non-profit journey in her teens, inspired by her parents’ values of education, hard work, and community involvement. Early experiences with the YMCA of Mexico and the Latin American and Caribbean Alliance of YMCAs exposed her to social justice issues and economic inequities across Latin America, while nearly 20 years in Pescadero deepened her understanding of immigration and the unique challenges of rural life on the South Coast.

Since joining Puente in 2006, Rita has advanced from home-visiting families to leading initiatives in immigration legal services, community building, adult education, and youth leadership and economic development. As Executive Director since January 2016, she collaborates with her dedicated team and board to shape the organization’s strategic vision and operational priorities. Her professional goals focus on expanding educational opportunities, cultivating local leadership, creating pathways to lasting economic and social well-being, and promoting affordable housing. Rita holds a master’s degree in Education from Universidad YMCA in Mexico City, is a fellow of the American Leadership Fellowship Education Class of XVIII, and volunteers on local boards and advisory councils in the Bay Area.

Stephanie Perez, Housing Specialist, Puente de la Costa Sur

Stephanie Perez is a Housing Project Specialist at Puente de la Costa Sur. She is responsible for managing the organization’s farmworker housing project with a long-term goal of developing more affordable housing for the whole community in Pescadero. Puente, just like me, is new to affordable housing, but both are eager to make a difference in the rural community that continuously gets forgotten due to being in unincorporated San Mateo County. Most of her professional experience has been in non-profits providing direct services to immigrants, which led her to seek a career in policy-making/advocacy. Stephanie also serves as Vice-Chair on the San Mateo County Farmworker Advisory Commission, where she continues to advocate for the rights of farm workers.

Elvia Aguilar, Agricultural Worker

Elvira Aguilar was born in Mexico in the state of Oaxaca. She immigrated to the United States in 2000. She is a wife and a mother to three daughters; her two younger daughters live with her in Pescadero, while her older daughter remains in Mexico. She has been working in agriculture for more than two decades. She worked for the same employer for nearly twenty years until that business closed. Today, she works at an organic and sustainable farm operation. Her favorite aspect of her work is that she gets to work with beautiful flowers. She has been living in the housing site that will become Casa de Las Flores since 2011.

Beatriz Zavala, Agricultural Worker

Beatriz is originally from Guanajuato, Mexico. She immigrated to the United States in 2002 and began living in Pescadero in 2003. She has been working in agriculture since she arrived in Pescadero. One of her favorite things about working in agriculture is that she gets to spend her time surrounded by the fresh coastal air. She shares her home with her partner and looks forward to the changes planned for her housing unit, which is part of Casa de las Flores.

Angie López, Rural Housing TA Specialist, RCAC

Angie López joined RCAC in October 2023 as a technical assistance (TA) provider. She is instrumental in securing funding for the Development Solutions program supporting the TA work with emerging affordable housing developers, rural jurisdictions and Tribal governments, to increase their capacity, assess market needs, facilitate project and program planning. Ms. López aids with project and program management, including board and organization strategic planning, financial modeling, predevelopment planning and due diligence and project management.

Before joining RCAC, Ms. López worked with nonprofit affordable housing developers in Northern California. She has over 15 years of experience working at multiple levels and has a familiarity as well as a personal connection to serving rural communities. She is an active advocate for consumers and dedicated to making homeownership accessible. Over the course of her tenure, she has developed a successful asset development program building capacity for community partners in Solano, Yolo and Sacramento counties. Community service is a core value, and she serves as the Co-President and Treasurer of Sharing Parents of Sacramento, a dog foster for local rescues in Tulare County and enjoys traveling with her family.