This fall, the Pacifica Resource Center teamed up with Partnership for the Bay’s Future to host a four-part educational series on housing. The goal was simple: to help our neighbors understand how housing works, why it has become so hard to afford, and how everyday community members can have a voice in shaping it.
All four workshops were led by Alex Contreras of Partnership for the Bay’s Future, as part of their Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs. Over four evenings at the Pedro Point Firehouse, community members came together to learn, ask questions, and connect, all over dinner and good conversation. Here’s a look back at what each session covered.
Housing as a System
Our first workshop laid the foundation, exploring how housing functions as a system: the forces that drive costs, the players involved, and why the challenges we see locally are connected to much larger dynamics.
Understanding Pacifica’s Housing Element
Next, we dug into Pacifica’s Housing Element, how it works, where the city is in the process, how zoning shapes what gets built, and how community members can weigh in during public comment periods to influence future housing in Pacifica.
Housing Advocacy Training
In our third session, we turned learning into action with hands-on advocacy training, focused on how to organize, how local housing decisions get made, and how to make your voice heard.
Why State Housing Law Exists: A Discussion
For our final workshop, Alex was joined by Jeremy Levine of the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County for a discussion on the origins of California state housing law, why the state has stepped into local planning to encourage more homes, how it impacts Pacifica, and what’s coming next.
Missed a session? Want to revisit the material?
We’ve included the slides from each workshop below, so you can explore the topics at your own pace.
What’s next
In partnership with Partnership for the Bay’s Future, we’re building a new webpage to help Pacifica residents find information and resources about housing in our community, all in one place. Alex is leading this effort as well, and we’ll share the page here as soon as it’s ready, so stay tuned.
A special thank you to Alex Contreras for leading this series and for the care and expertise they brought to every session, to Jeremy Levine for joining us for our final discussion, and to everyone who came out, asked questions, and brought their energy to these conversations. Housing touches all of us, and building a more affordable, resilient community starts with neighbors showing up for one another.
Please note: these workshops were educational, not a housing search or placement service. If you need help getting connected with housing resources, the Pacifica Resource Center team is here for you. Call us at 650-738-7470, email info@pacresourcecenter.org, or visit pacresourcecenter.org.