June 2020
House Farm Workers!
Working to promote safe, decent, secure and affordable housing for all
Ventura County farm workers since 2004.
Events
We are sad to announce that our
From Field to Fork dinner
has been cancelled.
We have made the very difficult but necessary decision to cancel this year's fund-raising dinner due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and concerns for the health and safety of our supporters, staff and volunteers.

"From Field to Fork" is our main fundraiser, and 100% of the proceeds go toward the operating budget for our education and advocacy programs. The success of our mission — to support safe, decent, secure and affordable housing for farm workers — depends on the generous financial support you provide for our annual event.

During this challenging and uncertain time, we continue to focus our efforts on ensuring that farm workers have a safe, decent and affordable place to call home. The pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of the farm worker population, and made clear how critical our work is. You can support us by going to our website and making a donation. Thank you!
Highlights
City Group Updates

  • Oxnard Farm Worker Housing Committee:
  • The Oxnard Farm Worker Housing Committee has been meeting virtually and has recently advocated in favor of proposed increases to the affordable housing in-lieu fee. The fee increase did not pass.

  • The group also advocated for the city to adopt a new inclusionary housing ordinance simultaneously with the 2021 Housing Element adoption. This is important because we want to see an improved inclusionary housing policy be adopted as soon as possible.
  • Santa Paula Affordable Housing Task Force
  • The Santa Paula Affordable Housing Task Force advocated in support of the proposed Peoples' Self-Help Housing 69-unit affordable housing project on Harvard Boulevard. The project, named Peoples' Place, was reviewed at the May 26 Planning Commission meeting. The Planning Commission voted 5-0 in favor of the project.
  • Ventura Farm Worker Housing Committee
  • The Ventura Farm Worker Housing Committee met virtually for the first time on May 26, and received an update on the Ventura County Farmworker Resource Program and the needs of the farm worker community during this challenging time.
At this time, all city groups are meeting virtually.

Interested in joining one of our city groups and getting notices about upcoming meetings? Please contact us at events@housefarmworkers.org to be added to a
city group mailing list.
Congrats to our
2020 Ellen Brokaw Scholarship Recipients! 🎉🎉🎉
This year we were able to grant $3,000 scholarships to three recent high school graduates and current college students whose parents are farm workers. Listed below are the three recipients of the 2020  Ellen Brokaw Scholarship :

Paola Gonzalez

Bryan Navarette

Rosita Lopez

More information on our 2020 Scholarship recipients will be forthcoming!
Housing Trust Fund Ventura County's
Everyone Deserves a Home
Compassion Campaign:
Interview with Cesar Hernandez, HTFVC Board Member

Our executive director, Alondra Serna, interviewed Cesar Hernandez as part of the Housing Trust Fund Ventura County's (HTFVC) E veryone Deserves A Home Compassion Campaign . Cesar is currently the senior field organizer for economic justice at Community Change, and is a board member with the Housing Trust Fund Ventura County. He has been involved within the local community on various issues for many years.

Click the image below to watch the interview, in which Cesar shares his story of growing up in affordable housing and the impact it has on people's lives.
Farm Worker Housing Units Available:
Rancho Verde Apartments
The Housing Authority of the City of San Buenaventura currently has available 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedroom apartment units that are specifically reserved for qualifying farm workers and their families at the Rancho Verde Apartments, located in East Ventura. Please click the flyers below for more information or visit http://hacityventura.org/apply.html.
Guadalupe Court Apartments
Peoples' Self Help Housing (PSSH) is currently accepting applications for 1, 2, and 3 bedroom apartment units that will be available late July. These units are specifically reserved for low-income farm workers and their families at the new Guadalupe Court Apartments, located in Guadalupe, CA. Please see the flyers for more information or visit https://www.pshhc.org/new-housing/.

Refer someone and get $800 in rent concession or a gift card if you currently live in a PSHH apartment. See flyer below for more information.

 House Farm Workers! is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting safe, decent, secure, and affordable housing for farm workers through education and advocacy. House Farm Workers! does not build farm worker housing nor does it manage housing units. Please contact the farm worker housing management company for questions about renting.
Farm Worker Housing Advocate:
Israel Vasquez-Nicolas and
 the Farmworker Resource Program
Israel is the agricultural community labor relations and resource coordinator for the Ventura County Farmworker Resource Program (FRP), which opened in the fall of 2018. Its goal is to build trust and relationships among the agricultural community, assist in facilitating prompt resolutions to workplace concerns, and help farm workers locate resources and understand laws that protect them.

The resource program also works to develop and distribute outreach materials to employers and employees. Israel explained, “We break linguistic barriers between the farm workers and employers.” Since some of the farm workers are most comfortable communicating in Spanish or Mixteco, they develop resources employing appropriate cultural relevance and language. The FRP also works with the Ventura County agricultural commissioner to provide flyers with information and resources to attach to employee pay stubs.

During this pandemic, the resource center staff has been able to work with employers to distribute face masks, as well as a "backpack doctor" - a mobile doctor who is able to meet farm workers at their place of work and provide them with crucial COVID-19 information. At the beginning of the pandemic, FRP staff helped provide Ventura County farm workers with an essential agriculture ID card so they could have peace of mind while going to and from work during the stay-at-home order.

To learn more about the Farmworker Resource Program, tune in to 94.1 FM every third Wednesday of the month. The FRP also has a WhatsApp group in Mixteco to reach out to farm workers with audio and visual resources daily.


This interview was the product of a partnership between CSUCI’s Service Learning program  and Professor Nancy Chen’s Communications Capstone course. The interview was conducted by Diana Martinez. 
House Farm Workers!
805-921-0430  info@housefarmworkers.org 
www.housefarmworkers.org