6 Questions for Maria Elena Guerra

Farmworker Housing Development Corporation (FHDC) works to create housing and economic opportunity for low-income farmworkers and working families in Oregon. Maria Elena Guerra, also known as MEG (pronounced “Meg”), leads FHDC with a keen sense of purpose and strategic vision. Since she took its helm in 2016, FHDC has expanded its housing portfolio, enlarged its mission with new programs and initiatives, and maintained its identity as an organization focused on organizing communities of color and indigenous people to build prosperity and create systemic change.

Originally from Guayaquil, Ecuador, Guerra has called Portland home for more than two decades. She was recognized by Enterprise, earlier this year, as one of forty impactful people across the nation who have “helped us break boundaries and strengthen communities over the past thirty years.” HDC’s relationship with both FHDC and MEG goes back years, and we are honored that she took time, in October, to share with us her thoughts about FHDC’s past, present, and future and about policy changes that could make Oregon’s affordable housing system work better. This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.

FHDC’s work is rooted in a thirty-one-year-history of community organizing. Can you talk about some of that history? What were the early organizers fighting for, and against? What were some of the early victories?

Yes. In some ways, we're still fighting the same fight.

Why did we start working on housing issues? Let's go back to the 1940s, when the Bracero Program was started. It was an agreement between Mexico and the United States to bring people to work as farmworkers during World War II. It was considered a remarkable success, supplying food to the American people through the war. The Bracero Program continued in various forms until 1964. Today, the Willamette Valley region has one of the largest agricultural workforces in the country.

“Despite their huge contributions to the wellbeing and cultural fabric of Oregon and to the state’s tax base, farmworkers remain...among the lowest-paid and most exploited laborers in Oregon.”

Unfortunately, despite their huge contributions to the wellbeing and cultural fabric of Oregon and to the state's tax base, farmworkers remain, as the pandemic shows, among the lowest-paid and most exploited laborers in Oregon. The majority of agricultural workers come from Central America and Mexico and face language, cultural, political, educational, and economic barriers. When they come here to work as farm laborers, their work is subject to adverse and changing climate conditions, work opportunities are temporary, and on-farm housing options are typically overcrowded with minimal infrastructure.

FHDC was formed as a response to the housing inequities faced in the immigrant farm labor community; it was formed by community organizations and individuals who saw the need to provide farmworkers a decent place to live. In 1992, FHDC started its first development, Nuevo Amanecer. We faced fierce opposition—even though our madrina, as we call the former governor Barbara Roberts, was able to help us and persuade the City of Woodburn to allow us to build Nuevo Amanecer. Phase 1 was fifty units, with 215 individuals housed in a central community location with access to schools, health facilities, culturally specific foods, and other amenities It was completed in 1994.

Today, we have eleven housing developments in Woodburn, Independence, Salem, Silverton, Sublimity, Stayton, and most recently 140 units in Lebanon. More than affordable and stable housing to low-income Oregonians, we provide services to help families navigate the various challenges and opportunities in their communities. In 2011, we made the decision to focus on providing housing for all working families, not only farmworkers. At the same time, we do provide culturally specific services; and we prioritize housing for those least likely to apply, immigrants, BIPOC, and ESL communities.

“Our Promotores (resident leaders) speak to elected officials about the need for affordable rent and homeownership, advocate for access to drivers’ licenses regardless of documentation and for overtime pay, and fight against use of toxic pesticides.”

The goal we’ve always fought for is prosperity for all, in the belief that no one is truly liberated until we are all free. Our journey through and to this goal is implemented through building housing—in rural areas, in housing burdened communities, in poor communities, in BIPOC communities. In Oregon, this is not the status quo, and we always face opposition to our vision. FHDC hopes for the day when we can go into a community and be received with open arms. That hasn't happened yet, at least not since I joined FHDC back in 2005 (originally as a director of property management).

Let’s talk about the gains. We have staff and board members who grew up in FHDC housing. They are professionals giving back to what, at some point, were their homes. We have the Promotores Resident Leadership program that supports residents to advocate for themselves and their families. They speak to elected officials about the need for affordable rent and homeownership, advocate for access to drivers’ licenses regardless of documentation and for overtime pay, and fight against use of toxic pesticides. We have kids graduating from high school and getting Fullbright scholarships. By the end of 2022, FHDC will have built 485 units. But we must remember, a roof is just the beginning for our families, and housing alone is not enough to solve our complex socioeconomic and environmental challenges.

Can you say more about the work FHDC does, beyond building housing?

FHDC has always been a proponent of supporting families in their ability to access education, health, and income-generating resources. An example was in 2011, after the economic downturn, FHDC staff and leadership joined in brainstorming collective action to help families expand their careers and income-earning potential. FHDC was in need of property managers who culturally identified with our residents and could provide more aligned and culturally relevant and informed services. As immigrants, we don’t always understand how the financial system works when we arrive here. Sometimes we don’t rent; we stay with family. The lease terms and application requirements are often in a language we don’t read or speak.

“[Evolve provides] culturally informed affordable housing management services and workforce training to individuals who live in our housing and adjacent communities through an equity-informed approach to real estate management.”

The context of community and organizational needs during this time aligned to form an organization focused on training the next generation of community property managers to ensure that residents are successful in locating and adapting to affordable housing and other life endeavors. We launched Evolve Workforce and Multifamily Housing Services in 2016. It is a sister nonprofit of FHDC, providing culturally informed affordable housing management services and workforce training to individuals who live in our housing and adjacent communities through an equity-informed approach to real estate management.

We have hired five of our former trainees. We are also providing opportunities for people who have been with us, for a long time, to grow into leadership positions. Anna Gomez started with us 16 years ago as a site manager. We trained her, and now she is the operations manager for Evolve. We have Jose Alvarez, who has also been with us for 16 years. He went from mowing the grass and doing janitorial services to being the maintenance supervisor, with a team of seven people who work under him. We have the first Latina-certified compliance officer who launched a private practice offering compliance services to other housing developments across the state.

We also have the Promotores program. The Promotores are resident leader/volunteers who lead community organizing. FHDC has always had volunteers, but we made the program official at the end of 2019. During the pandemic, the Promotores were key to providing residents services and education about Covid 19. They did resume building, interviews, ESL classes, computer classes, food distribution, and testing and vaccine distribution. And the results are apparent. Our original group of Promotores had seven people. Three of them bought their own homes, and four of them were prompted into jobs outside of the agricultural industry. One of them is still doing work with us.

“For our seniors, our resident services staff take time to just check on them. To ask, “What do you need—clothing food, or do you just want to talk?” Whatever they need, we do it for them.”

We have recently opened homeownership and foreclosure prevention programs. We have twenty-four participants who are committed to understand how to buy a house and understand how their finances impact housing affordability. We want to make sure they really understand what it means to buy a house and the financial responsibility they will have.

We have many other programs: after-school programs, ESL classes, and activities for kids who live at our properties. We work with music instructors, language providers, and a professional artist, who is internationally known, who paints murals on all our buildings. He invites the kids to participate in some of the murals. It gives our kids the opportunity to explore the arts, which they might otherwise not have.

During the pandemic, we partnered with other agencies to provide mental health services to our families, because they were having a hard time. As you know, farmworkers were some of the most impacted communities. And for our seniors, our resident services staff take time to just check on them. To ask, “What do you need—clothing food, or do you just want to talk?” Whatever they need, we do it for them.

You’ve said that when you think about what FHDC stands for, you think about three words. What are these words, and what do they mean to you?

The first word is resilience. After thirty-one years of working in rural communities, we haven't given up. We haven't said, “this is too hard.” There’s always a perception that we are going to do harm. We have to educate people—to let them know we are not coming to trash their town, we are looking for the same opportunities their ancestors were looking for when they came to America. We are looking for opportunities for our kids to have a safe and healthy place to live, and for our families to be in communion with a larger community. We have to educate our residents to be part of our larger community, as well as to help the larger community to understand where we are coming from.

“After thirty-one years of working in rural communities, we haven’t given up. We haven’t said, this is too hard.”

The second word is service. We are an organization that is here to serve. We are here to support our families and low-income individuals to access a healthy place to live and shine. I see our work as a ladder for them to get to the next level. FHDC is part of a sisterhood of eleven organizations called the Alianza Poder. We are always talking about radical generosity. It’s not just about money and donations; it’s about the work you do daily for all the communities. I see this in my staff and in myself. The more we work, the more service we provide to our families, the better we feel.

Finally, equity. One thing I want to say is that we try hard to practice equity, but I don’t think we are one-hundred-percent there, as we are a reflection and a part of our overall society. We all have our biases, individually and collectively, and we do our best to create awareness and understanding in our work. We try to be intentional about our decisions and the impact that decisions may cause. Evolve is a representation of what we want to do, a collaborative effort with our residents. It has taken us a lot of time to build that trusted relationship. And even though we try to practice equity in everything we do, including how we select vendors and collaborate with small and minority-owned businesses, we have a long way to go. We need to put more attention into our internal systems, with regard to staffing. We currently have a grant to do more intentional equity mapping in our leadership with our board of directors, starting next year. To be clear, equity work is not a separate training that happens in a vacuum from our daily programming and decision-making, it’s always in our minds and conversations.

What do you see as some of the major current and oncoming challenges and opportunities facing FHDC?

Accessing and affording land is difficult. OHCS (Oregon Housing and Community Services) created a land acquisition program. Great, the money is there. The challenge is to locate viable land. There is very little land accessible to nonprofit developers at this point—especially to small, culturally specific organizations that lack capital and leverage in the real estate marketplace. In 2020 and 2021, while we were busy responding to the impacts of Covid 19 on our residents, bigger organizations, private developers, and national developers, bought land left and right. Now, there is none to very little land that is affordable to build housing.

“The challenge is to locate viable land. ...We need policies that give Oregon-based nonprofit developers, like us, priority for opportunities to develop publicly owned lands.”

Construction delays and increased hard costs are another challenge we are facing. Inflation is not unique to our industry and is impacting global economics. How it plays out for us is that we are seeing up to six months delay because of lack of supply. In the past, it has been lumber, and currently it’s electrical items that that are scarce. When we face delays in construction, the risk is that lease-up won’t happen on time, and tax credits won’t be delivered to investors. There is an opportunity for stakeholders to sit at the table and say, “what are we going to do about this?”

Competition for development opportunities is an issue. It’s not only between nonprofits and for-profit developers in Oregon. We are seeing a massive invasion of private and nonprofit developers on a national level, coming with money to say to local jurisdictions, “Sure, I can build you this.” Some of these developers don’t understand the local market and are proposing operational costs very much lower than what we know the reality is. I’m not saying private developers or larger nonprofit organizations don’t have a role to play. They do. But they make a 15-year investment, then leave and let property management deal with the problems. At FHDC, we don’t build for 15 years. We build with quality materials, which cost more. We provide supportive services to our residents.

We need policies that give Oregon-based nonprofit developers, like us, priority for opportunities to develop publicly owned lands. It’s like the environmentalists say: buy local. When you buy local, you help your economy. We need policy change in that area.

“(Culturally specific service providers) are not being told the entire story, and they are going into these deals blind, sometimes.”

Another problem—or maybe we could call it a miscommunication, or an opportunity—is that culturally specific service providers, who don’t have experience operating housing, are being approached by private developers to partner on housing deals. Some of us say, “No, thank you.” Others are saying yes, we will play the role of a culturally specific organization, so you can check the box. They are not being told the entire story, and they are going into these deals blind, sometimes. Having forty units will cost you the same as overseeing 1,500. Asset management, compliance, property management, operations, and accounting—these are real responsibilities with real costs.

Let’s talk about the role equity plays in all of this. When I partner with an organization, let’s say an architect, I go to their website and look at the faces in the high-level positions. I’m very feminist. So, if I don’t see diversity in representation, that impacts my decision. Diversity in leadership and representation is important. If there are no people of color in leadership, it is not in alignment with my organization. I am very vocal about this. I say, the staff page on your website is the first thing I’ll look at when you come knocking on my door. While I realize that race and gender are just two aspects of an identity or a team, they are foundational in communicating the values and priorities of an organization.

Two previous HDC executive directors have served on FHDC’s board, and HDC has provided development and asset management services to FHDC for more than a decade. How have you seen both FHDC and HDC grow as a result of this long relationship?

How can I say everything that HDC and FHDC have gone through and done together? What is it? It feels like home, like family. I have no hesitation in calling HDC and saying, “I have no idea what to do here, can you advise me?” I always find an answer, whether it’s the answer I was looking for or an introduction to someone who can help. I am never left alone. It’s a family relationship, we’re familia.

“HDC has been with FHDC through our growing pains, and we have grown together in partnership and community. ...I call it familia.”

When I hire HDC to do housing development, I don’t just hire a housing developer. I hire a team of accountants, asset managers, property managers; it’s a holistic approach. If we want to talk about numbers: when we started this relationship, FHDC had only 102 units. By end of this year, we will have 485. HDC has been with FHDC through our growing pains, and we have grown together in partnership and community.

Something very important, which I need to acknowledge, is that HDC walked this path with us without interrupting our ways. Let’s be honest: we do things differently. We are a culturally specific organization, and we know what our culture wants and needs. HDC has always tried to respect how we manage our business. I’ve never felt any imposition of “our way is better.” I call it familia.

What would help FHDC be even more successful in its work—in terms of new resources, changed perceptions, or otherwise?

We—not just FHDC, but the nonprofit community at large—need to be first in the minds of cities, counties, and housing authorities. We should be the first ones they call when development opportunities arise.

“We need access to unrestricted capital and low interest-rate loans. ...If we had money that we could use to train people, that would be a help.”

We need access to unrestricted capital and low interest-rate loans. One thing that helped us survive during the pandemic were the PPP loans. That was restricted capital, it was dedicated to helping us keep our staff. Now, if we had money that we could use to train people, that would be a help. At this point, we are training property managers, asset managers, and housing developers out of money given by foundations. There is something called the workforce board that gets all the money to invest in communities of color to do workforce training. We haven’t seen a penny of that. Those monies should come directly to us.

Perceptions, we can’t change except with education. And that’s what we do. We are here to change the perspectives of people throughout the communities we go into. I think our properties really represent who we are. I’m proud to say that people knock on our doors and ask for rental applications, thinking it is market-rate housing. If you, as a US Bank manager, come asking for an application to live in FHDC housing, I feel like I’m doing my job.

Anything to add?

I want to extend my thank-you for the great work that HDC does—all these years of partnership and support. I trust that there is more to come and that we will develop an even better and more collaborative relationship. All of you at HDC are rocking it.