BUILDING HEALTHY HOMES FOR FARM WORKER COMMUNITIES

DESCRIBED AS THE "AMERICAN RIVIERA" for its golden beaches and luxury homes, the Santa Maria Valley — just 90 miles north of Santa Barbara — is also renowned for its agriculture and thousands of farm workers harvesting strawberries, broccoli and other year-round crops. Home to many of these farm workers, the city of Guadalupe (pop. 5,659) is "the poorest city in the county," in the words of Jeanette Duncan, Executive Director of Peoples' Self-Help Housing Corporation. Guadalupe's per capita income is $8,248. About a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line. Affordable housing for many is out of the question. Many families, mostly underserved farm workers, are forced to live in squalor — overcrowded apartments, homes and trailers — and health care is often a luxury or a last-ditch effort.

But the situation at the Riverview Townhomes, a newly constructed low-income rental community in Guadalupe, is different. "Today if you drove by Riverview, you wouldn't think it was low-income housing," says Duncan. A development of People's Self-Help Housing, Riverview offers its residents a safe, affordable, attractive place to live with access to health services and, most of all, hope.

STATE WIDE INITIATIVES
Riverview is one of dozens of similar complexes in agricultural communities around the state built through The California Endowment's groundbreaking $31 million, five-year Agricultural Worker Health and Housing Program. The program, funded through the Rural Communities Assistance Corporation (RCAC), provided grants to build affordable housing with integrated medical services for farm worker families across the state.

"When you have mold on walls, no safe drinking water and waste scattered around, it doesn't matter if you lead a healthy lifestyle," says RCAC Rural Development Manager Hector Fernandez. "The same goes if you have the best housing conditions but don't have access to health services."

The state of California based its Prop. 46 — Joe Serna Jr. Farmworker Health and Housing Set-Aside Grant program — on The Endowment's Agricultural Worker Health and Housing initiative. In 2004, RCAC received another $2.6 million grant from The Endowment to administer Prop. 46 funds to develop more affordable housing. The latest grant also helps RCAC provide management assistance, training and related technical support with a primary focus on improving local community infrastructure and housing for agricultural workers in California.

HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS FOR FAMILIES
Juan Zarate, his wife Susana and his two daughters, Natyle, 6, and Camila, 4, are one of Riverview's first families. The community has 80 one- to four-bedroom town homes. The complex also features a community center with a health clinic, and a learning center offers education assistance like ESL, GED and citizenship classes and tutoring for kids grades K-12. The amenities are open to all residents, who on average pay about $575 a month in rent. Juan drives a tractor trailer at a farm to support the family and before moving, they had lived in a "small, dirty, old, unhealthy apartment," he says through a translator. "We like the apartments because they are new and comfortable and they are a healthy environment for our children," he adds.