Abstract:

This study was undertaken by the California Coalition for Rural Housing (CCRH) to evaluate the effectiveness of the cooperative model in providing affordable home ownership to California’s farmworkers. The cooperative housing model has been employed in California for almost three decades and there are now 11 farmworker housing cooperatives operating in the state. Although they vary in terms of funding sources, equity structures and occupational restrictions, all of these cooperatives share a common structure in which low-income farmworkers have an opportunity to collectively own and democratically operate their own housing.