Redwood City – San Mateo County supervisors on Tuesday agreed to seed a fund that will provide loans to local farmers who provide low-cost housing to their workforce.
At a hearing in Redwood City, supervisors voted 5-0 to allocate $2 million to help address a critical shortage of affordable housing for the region’s farm laborers.
The funds are intended to help qualifying farm owners and operators rehabilitate existing units to ensure that they meet essential health and safety standards as well as build new housing.
“Our agricultural industry is the backbone of our food system, and it’s struggling here in San Mateo County. We’re taking action to support them,” said Supervisor Ray Mueller, whose District 3 includes the majority of the county’s farmland.
“By working to ensure agriculture has the financial resources available to provide safe housing for farmworkers and ranch hands, we’re strengthening our agricultural economy and building a stronger, more resilient future for every member of our community,” Mueller said.
To qualify for loans, farm owners or operators must meet certain requirements that include bringing units up to health and safety codes, renting solely to eligible low-income farmworkers and their families and maintaining below-market rents.
Information about the program will be sent to all operators of farmworker housing identified through prior outreach.
San Mateo County’s agricultural industry generates about $100 million in gross value annually.
Supervisors approved a two-phased implementation. Phase I will focus on enhancing the quality of existing housing stock through rehabilitation and renovation of housing units. Phase II will then focus on the construction of new housing units, pending unallocated funding from Phase I.
An additional component of this Board approval includes a credit against the loan balance for San Mateo County farmers that would allow them to repay the loan in an expedited format in return for leasing the units at rates even lower than the program requires.
The Board’s approval renews ongoing efforts to improving housing conditions on farms across San Mateo County. Supervisors previously allocated $3 million that as of 2024 funded the construction and rehabilitation of 16 housing units.
The funding approved Tuesday comes from the countywide, voter-approved Measure K half-cent sales tax, which provides local funds for local needs.