This coastal city promised farmworkers affordable housing. Now, opponents are lining up against it

In the YIMBY vs. NIMBY world of state housing politics, all eyes will be on Half Moon Bay Tuesday night.

Less than a week after Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the coastal community for being out of compliance with state housing laws, Half Moon Bay City Council will determine the fate of a 40-unit senior farmworker complex that has been at the center of a three-year fight over whether the city  will allow low-income housing to be built downtown.

While the proposed affordable housing development on a city-owned lot at 555 Kelly St. in Half Moon Bay's downtown has been in the works for more than four years, the project received state-wide attention in 2023 when a mass shooting at two mushroom farms left seven dead and exposed the abysmal living conditions of agricultural workers on the San Mateo County coast. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom has sharply criticized the city's leaders for dragging their feet on the project.

Tuesday's council decision comes as a group called Let Half Moon Bay Voters Decide has collected enough signatures to put a referendum on the project on the November ballot. The council has two choices: allow the Half Moon Bay voters to decide whether the five-story development can go forward or rescind its previous approval, which would most likely kill the project.

For Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, executive director of Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, a Half Moon Bay-based nonprofit developing the project with Mercy Housing, the Tuesday vote is at least the 10th public hearing to which her organization has bussed dozens of agricultural workers struggling to afford life in a town where Zillow pegs median home price at $1.5 million and monthly rents at $4,500.

"Unfortunately, it's just story after story," said Hernandez-Arriaga.

Hernandez-Arriaga said the housing affordability crisis for farmworkers in the community of 11,000 was made more dire in April when the council repealed the city's rent control ordinance.

"Our community is deeply hurting for better housing conditions," she said. "So many people are having to rent one room bedrooms for a whole family. Everyone is waiting for some kind of respite, some type of relief, some type of care. Unfortunately we are going backwards here in Half Moon Bay."

The mass shooting unfolded in January 2023, when then-66-year-old farmworker Chunli Zhao was taken into custody for allegedly killing seven and wounding an eighth at the two farms. After the shooting, Newsom met with farmworkers and highlighted what he called deplorable living conditions, including families residing in converted shipping containers, some without proper running water or insulation.

Since then Newsom has continued to criticize Half Moon Bay for blocking housing, calling the delays of approvals for 555 Kelly Ave. "egregious."

"Rather than do the right thing and approve badly needed housing for the workers who feed us, a 40-unit complex for low-income seniors is being stalled by local officials," he said in March.

The project is part of the city's state-mandated housing element, which requires that Half Moon Bay plan for 480 housing units between 2023 and 2031. Of that number, 339 are required to be affordable to low- and moderate-income households.

Let Half Moon Bay Voters Decide says on its web site that the approval of the project could "open the door to a flood of tall, super dense, affordable housing to be built throughout the city."

"This and related questions have not been discussed broadly in the community," the group states. "We are seeking to place this question on the November 5 ballot to allow time for the citizens of Half Moon Bay to discuss, become well informed, and to weigh in on what will be one of the largest policy decisions for the future of our city."

In announcing legal action against Half Moon Bay - one of five cities targeted in lawsuits - Bonta and Newsom accused it of violating state law by missing several deadlines to submit plans to build more housing and for delaying projects such as the Kelly Avenue development. The lawsuit gives Half Moon Bay until the end of the year to adopt a compliant Housing Element.

"California's housing crisis demands action, not excuses," Bonta said. "Jurisdictions that remain out of compliance with our Housing Element Law are standing in the way of the homes Californians need."

Newsom said that Half Moon Bay and the four other California cities "had every chance to follow the law and plan for their fair share of housing." 

"They chose not to, so now they'll answer for it in court," he said.  

Ramie Dare, director of real estate development for Mercy Housing, said she was not surprised that project opponents were able to collect the roughly 800 signatures needed to put the referendum on the ballot.

Dare said she didn't know the lawsuit was coming and called the timing "interesting." She said Mercy Housing will continue to "do our best to advance the project," applying for funding and fine-tuning plans.  Mercy Housing has already secured more than $21.6 million in committed funding, including $13 million from the state's Serna Farmworker Housing Program.

With the A.I. boom driving up Bay Area  rents and home prices, Dare said the need for affordable housing is only increasing. More than 9,500 households applied for Mercy Housing's recently completed 148-unit Lark Landing complex in San Francisco. 

"We may not get thousands of applications for senior farmworker housing because it's a specific population unique to the coastside, but we know the need is out there," she said. "We've got whole families living in one room, or fathers having to live separately from wives and children due to lack of space. It's got to be incredibly difficult with rents where they are."

At a City Council meeting in March, 67-year-old farmworker Candido Rosales said "after a lifetime of hard work I am living in a very difficult reality."

"I cannot live with my wife and daughter - they rent a room with another family. I have to live somewhere else, also sharing a room with others," he said. "We are separated not because we want to be but because we have no other choice. At my age I want something so simple, so human: to live with my family."

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