In late 1998 and early 1999, representatives from The California Endowment (The Endowment) and RCAC developed a radical new approach for improving the health of agricultural workers in California. We recognized that health and housing are invariably tied. Without safe and sanitary housing, gains in health quickly can be lost.

Although it was evident that health and housing should be addressed in a coordinated fashion, the delivery systems for these services were historically quite separate. Affordable housing development organizations constructed housing projects; clinics and other health organizations dealt with health issues. Few opportunities existed for health organizations to reach workers where they live.

AWHHP worked to unite health and housing providers to improve the lives of farm workers.

AWHHP also required active farm worker involvement in planning, implementing and sustaining each project. RCAC believes that farm workers can contribute significantly to health and housing issues in their own communities, particularly for long-term change.

AWHHP has funded 49 health and housing projects with a total of $9,541,445 in Health Improvement Grants and $19,000,000 in Capital Loans.

As part of the AWHHP project, RCAC began publishing Seeds: The Agricultural Worker Health and Housing Program Quarterly in English and Spanish. Issues (and additional AWHHP information) can be viewed at www.rcac.org

AWHHP was one stage of a long-term effort to improve the lives of California’s farm workers. Both The Endowment and RCAC are committed to continuing this important work. The next stage is a program under the Agricultural Worker Health Initiative (AWHI). Launched in 2005, Poder Popular Para la Salud del Pueblo (Poder Popular) is the culmination of work and knowledge thus far gained from The Endowment’s AWHI. It utilizes a “place-based” approach that concentrates resources financial and non-financial), partners and strategies within selected farm worker-populated regions to achieve improved outcomes in the three Impact Goals of AWHI: 1) Systems 2) Population and 3) Community. An even more ambitious effort, Poder Popular will aide specific communities that are home to the largest number of farm workers.

When all AWHHP projects are completed, more than 1,100 units of affordable housing for farm workers will be developed and more than 260 beds for unaccompanied migrant workers will be created. The California Endowment commissioned an evaluation of the AWHHP in 2004–05. The evaluation was conducted by Dennis Rose & Associates of Sacramento. You may review the evaluation information and in-depth evaluation reports on many projects funded by the AWHHP by visiting the RCAC website at www.rcac.org.

AWHHP worked to unite health and housing providers to improve the lives of farm workers.