While CNC Members Uplift Housing Needs, Merced County Board of Supervisors Underfunds Housing Support
Communities for a New California, Racial & Gender Justice Budget Equity Campaign:
Increasing the Merced County FY 2025–2026 Budget
Blanca has lived in Delhi for more than 30 years. Every month, she and her daughter Hayde sit at the kitchen table, calculators in hand, figuring out how to stretch their paychecks. Together with their partners, they pool their money to cover $2,000 in rent. That means groceries, gas, doctor visits, and school supplies always come second.
What they want isn’t extravagant. They dream of a home they can call their own—a safe place to raise their children and foster kids, a home they can pass down so the next generation doesn’t have to start from scratch. But in Merced County, those dreams feel further and further out of reach.
The San Joaquin Valley is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis, and Merced County is no exception. A recent survey of Valley residents conducted by MOVE the Valley, the largest and most representative study of its kind in two decades, found that affordable housing is the number one issue negatively impacting households across the region. Families are struggling to find stability, and the numbers prove it.
A County Budget That Fails Families
This year, Merced County released its proposed $1.15 billion budget. Out of all that money, only $1.5 million is set aside for the Affordable Housing Program (page 169), which helps first-time homebuyers and funds critical repairs for struggling families. Meanwhile, nearly 9,000 households in Merced County don’t have access to an affordable home, and more than 70% of extremely low-income families spend over half their income on rent.
Families like Blanca’s are making impossible choices every day: pay rent or buy groceries, keep the lights on or fill prescriptions. And yet, the Merced County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a budget that keeps housing funding at the bare minimum, while increasing the Sheriff’s Department budget to $54.8 million (page 139). CNC is not saying the Sheriff’s Department should not be receiving almost $55 million; CNC is saying the Merced County budget needs a more equitable distribution and a path forward that isn’t just a one-size-fits-all, because $1.5 million for the Affordable Housing Budget does not fit our residents’ needs.
The Human Cost of Underfunding Housing
We know what happens when families can’t find stable housing. Children are pulled out of schools, losing friends and falling behind in their academic careers. Parents work one or two jobs, maybe a side hustle as well. But families still live in overcrowded apartments, and worry about making rent if an unforeseen expense arises. Eviction is a real worry because a single car repair or medical bill can set a family back months, if not years. Families are forced to move away from their homes, to uproot themselves just to make ends meet.
Latina women are hit especially hard. They are the backbone of Merced County. They care for children, teach in classrooms, cook in restaurants, staff nursing homes, yet they are locked out of homeownership at higher rates due to systemic barriers, discrimination, and low wages. When mothers and daughters can’t afford a home, their children’s futures are put at risk as well.
Affordable Housing Is the Smarter and Safer Choice
Investing in affordable housing isn’t just about compassion, it’s about smart economics and public safety.
- Every 100 affordable rental homes built creates over 161 local jobs and nearly $12 million in local income, and that is just the first year.
- Stable housing is directly linked to lower crime rates, better educational outcomes, and stronger community networks.
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It is far cheaper to provide affordable housing than to keep funding emergency shelters, jails, and hospital visits caused by housing instability.
In the simplest terms, it costs less to keep families in safe, stable homes than to deal with the array of fallout when they don’t have one.
A Call for Courage and Leadership
CNC’s Racial and Gender Justice Budget Equity Campaign is urging the Board of Supervisors to act before final budget approval on September 23, 2025. We are calling for:
- Increased funding for the Affordable Housing Program because $1.5 million is nowhere near enough.
- Budget transparency and more public hearings because one meeting is not enough for families to be heard in a county as geographically large as Merced County.
- Equitable distribution of resources because prioritizing arrest and jails over homes will never build thriving neighborhoods for our families.
The Choice Before Us
Imagine Blanca and Hayde finally holding the keys to their own home. Imagine children in Merced County sleeping soundly in bedrooms they won’t be forced to leave mid-school-year. Imagine moms no longer lying awake at night, wondering how they’ll make rent.
Affordable housing means dignity. It means stability. It means hope.
The Board of Supervisors has a choice: invest in families and their futures, or continue underfunding the very programs that could break the cycle of poverty and homelessness.
On September 23, stand with us. Call your Supervisor. Show up at the hearing. Share your story. Together, we can make housing a priority and build a stronger, safer, and more just Merced County.
The solution, our values, and our priorities are found in the annual budget.
RSVP to join us in the Merced County Final Budget Hearing on September 23 at 10:00 am.
On June 17, 2025, CNC staff and volunteers provided comments at the Board of Supervisors 2025-2026 Proposed Budget Hearing about how the affordable housing crisis in Merced County impacts them and their families.