EXCLUSIVE: Documents expose deplorable housing conditions, bacteria in water at San Mateo County farms

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (KGO) — The mass shooting at a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay shed light on the deplorable housing conditions farmworkers have been living in for decades.

This tragedy prompted the launch of a San Mateo County task force that has been inspecting farms in the county.

ABC7 News reporter Luz Pena has been covering this story for over a year and has an exclusive look into these findings.

This is the first time San Mateo County finally has clear insight into how farmworkers are living. Through a public records request, we obtained exclusive photos, inspection reports and the findings this task force has been collecting for over a year.

Over the last year, with the help of satellite imaging, community tips and property records, the San Mateo County Task Force inspected over 130 units of housing.

In them were 355 farmworkers. They task force found homes hidden in plain sight.

“When they were on a site, they had their eyes open and if there was anything they thought was a residence that had some health and safety issues, they were authorized to also inspect. We wanted to make sure that if there was housing on these lands that it was safe,” said Justin Mates.

We obtained the task force’s inspection reports with emails and photos of code violations.

We spoke to Justin Mates about the findings. Mates is the deputy county executive and key coordinator for the task force.

“About 60% of all the units we inspected were in compliance – about 40% were not and required some corrected action,” said Mates. “Our main focus was current agricultural and ranch operations that provide housing to their employees.”

We went down the list. Inspectors found multiple units that were not previously registered with the county. They yellow-tagged the housing at several farms.

“What is clear is that if it has been yellowed or red tagged, nobody should be living there until that correction is addressed,” said Mates.

One of the farms on the list was Coast Wholesale Florists Inc. Inspectors found multiple code violations leading to the property owner demolishing buildings and paying tenant for relocation packages. After multiple inspections, the property has been fixed.

There are changes still pending at multiple farms. One of those is the Contreras Farm. No one was available to speak on camera.

Satellite images captured multiple structures in the property. Inspectors yellow tagged one of the units. Photos show a trailer with several violations, wooden structures and mold covering a bathroom and a laundry room.

Inspectors reported a total of 11 occupants in different units and one minor.

“I’m sure there are other sites like this, and this is not acceptable. This is not acceptable at all,” said Joaquin Jimenez, Half Moon Bay’s Mayor.

Mayor Jimenez knows the family who lives at the Contreras Farm, yet he said he had never seen the inside of the units. Mayor Jimenez has been advocating for farmworker housing saying there are at least 1,000 farmworkers in need of housing.

“Everyone is responsible. Owners are responsible. The people that live there are responsible. The county is responsible. The people that continue to push back are responsible. If there was no pushback for building farmworker housing, these living conditions wouldn’t be happening,” said Mayor Jimenez.

The county’s Environmental Health Services also found bacteria in the water supply at the Contreras farm. One of the residents was quoted requesting for another sample to be collected.

This was an issue inspectors found in 36 units throughout the county.

“That was the most concerning finding of our inspections,” said Mates. “Largely the presence of bacteria in the water supply outside of safe drinking standards.”

On the phone, a member of the Contreras family said they are fixing the issues and confirmed they have lived in the property for decades, but don’t own it.

We looked through the county’s records and found an email where Victor Aenlle says, “I am the property owner.”

Aenlle is the Chief of Staff of the San Mateo County Sheriff.

Deputies were the first to respond to the mass shooting and witness the deplorable housing conditions at California Terra Garden.

We asked Aenlle if he was aware of the conditions on his property.

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In a statement, he said:

“I want to clarify that the inspection in question pertains strictly to land use on privately owned property. I do not own or operate a farming operation, nor do I have any employees associated with such activities.”

In cases like this, who does the county hold responsible?

“If the operator was different than the property owner, then the property owner may be held responsible. Some of our code enforcements are local regulations – do hold the property owner responsible even if the property owner is not the operator,” said Mates.

We went to another site on the list, Ananda Valley Farm.

Luz Pena: “How many people live here?”
David Praver: “There are close to 20 people that live here. Three families are farm labor families that have been here for decades and there are about five people that are associated with the farm.”

Inspectors flagged foundation and water issues here. The staff made changes fast.

“We wanted it to get done. We wanted it to get done because we wanted to be in harmony and cooperation with the county and to help the residents that live here, and also we wanted to get back to what is most important to us which is farming,” said David Praver with Ananda Valley Farm.

Praver said they also fixed their water supply issues, “One of the other things we had to do for county was to replace our septic system.”

Mates said many property owners are complying and want to make their properties better.

“The vast majority of our operators provide housing that meets these essential health and safety standards and those that didn’t for the most part, have been making those corrections in those safe standards,” said Mates.

As this community continues to grief after the mass shooting, these inspections hope to shape policies that improve farmworker housing.

“We have a much better understanding today of the condition of our farm labor housing on farms than we did before that shooting,” said Mates.

Some of the policy ideas include proposing regulations for providers to test the water supply at farms every year, legalizing more housing units, and making it easier to get permits to build farmworker housing.

There has been push back for more housing, but advocates say that will ultimate be the solution.

The task force is set to release the complete report in about a month.

In response to this report, San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller released the following statement:

“My office is aware of the ABC7 Investigative News story from reporter Luz Pena that aired this evening, regarding the work of the San Mateo County Farmworker Housing Task Force. The report contained pictures and information relating to an investigation into a property located on the San Mateo County Coast. The practice of the County of San Mateo and of my office is to not comment on the specifics of pending enforcement actions. However, in general, the pictures of the living conditions in the report are horrific and heartbreaking. They exemplify why my office worked with County leadership to create the Farmworker Housing Task Force in 2023, to inspect farmworker housing on every farm and ranch in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is the work and goal of my office and the County of San Mateo to ensure that every agricultural worker in San Mateo County has access to safe and healthy housing.”

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