Farmworkers Housing Rights & Racial Justice

Workshop Summary

Our workshop will provide attendees with an overview of causes and conditions that continue to precipitate barriers to creating affordable and safe housing for (im)migrant farmworkers in San Mateo County.  The attendees will hear directly from local farmworkers about the importance of community organizing in housing advocacy work and the journalists who are working to capture those experiences in multimedia form.  Panelists will also discuss the findings from the forthcoming SVCF research about the current state of farmworker housing and what solutions might be advanced through policy. The workshop will also address the importance of centering racial justice in the struggle for farmworker housing and a set of policy and action recommendations.

Moderator and Panelists

Moderator – Kiyomi Yamamoto

Director of Housing, Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Kiyomi Honda Yamamoto is the Housing Director at Silicon Valley Community Foundation and is a fourth-generation Bay Area resident.  Formerly, she was the Lead Policy Attorney at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, where she advocated for anti-displacement policies and strong tenant protections.  Kiyomi also served as the Greenbelt Alliance South Bay Advocacy Manager, where she participated on the San Jose 2040 General Plan Task Force and the Protect Coyote Valley advocacy team that supported the historic 937-acre conservation acquisition.  Additionally, she held roles at the San Jose Redevelopment Agency and as a board member at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. Kiyom is currently a commissioner on the San Jose Community Stabilization and Opportunity Pathways Fund Commission and a board member at the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy.  

Panelist – Hyun-mi Kim

Director of Community Engagement, Puente De La Costa Sur

Hyun-mi Kim is the Director of Community Engagement and Public Policy at Puente. She joined Puente with over 15 years of experience in working with low-income communities of color in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest. Hyun-mi worked as a community organizer and an advocate for immigrant survivors of human trafficking and violence against women. More recently, Hyun-mi was an Equal Justice Works Fellow (2019-2021), the 2-year nationally recognized legal fellowship dedicated to public interest law. Hyun-mi has a Juris Doctor degree from Seattle University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA.

Panelist – Rita Mancera

Executive Director, Puente De La Costa Sur

Rita Mancera Hernandez, Executive Director of Puente de la Costa Sur in Pescadero, California.  Born in Mexico City, she grew up in Baja California Sur.  Rita joined Puente in 2006.  In 2016, she became Executive Director. Rita has lived in Pescadero for 17 years.

Panelist – Manuel Ortiz

Coordinator & Founder, Peninsula 360

Manuel Ortiz is a Mexican documentary photographer and reporter based in Redwood City, California. He has more than 20 years of experience in issues concerning social justice, migration, and the environment in different countries. Manuel has won the International Visual Sociology Association Prosser Award 2021 and several awards for his photographic and written work in different media outlets in the United States. He has been a judge in international journalist contests such as the Poy Latam and the Premio Gabriel García Marquez de Periodismo. Manuel collaborates independently with organizations such as Global Exchange and Ethnic Media Services in San Francisco, California. He is the coordinator and founder of Peninsula 360 Press, a Cross-cultural digital communication studio based in Redwood City, California.

Panelist – Kristy Wang

Principal, Community Planning Collaborative

Kristy Wang has over 20 years of experience in housing policy and planning, land use, community planning and affordable housing development. As a principal at Community Planning Collaborative, her portfolio spans a range of projects, primarily providing housing policy, affordable housing, and community engagement technical assistance to local jurisdictions and research and writing for nonprofits and foundations. Prior to joining Community Planning Collaborative, Kristy was SPUR’s community planning policy director, focused on the organization’s core work in community planning and housing through policy research, development, and advocacy. Prior to SPUR, she was a project manager at BRIDGE Housing Corporation for several years. Kristy has also served on the board of Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation and taught courses in planning, urban development, and affordable housing at Stanford and San Francisco State.