AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Racial & Gender Justice Budget Equity Campaign: Increasing the Merced County FY 2025-2026 Budget
CNC Education Fund is an active member of MOVE the Valley, a coalition of non-partisan civic and voter engagement organizations spanning a 9-county region from Kern to Sacramento. Since 2018, the coalition has conducted four representative sample surveys across the San Joaquin Valley to understand voters’ attitudes about the issues impacting their families. The latest survey, completed between November 9 and December 3, 2023, identified affordable housing as the issue most negatively impacting households across the Valley.
How Merced County Is Impacted
The California Housing Partnership’s 2024 Affordable Housing Needs Report found that nearly 9,000 low-income renter households in Merced County lack access to an affordable home, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income on rent, leaving less for food, healthcare, or savings. In fact, 72% of extremely low-income renters in the county are severely cost-burdened, spending more than half of their income on housing.
Housing instability is a growing threat in Merced County, where stagnant wages and rising rents mean that a single unexpected expense, like a car repair or medical bill, can quickly spiral into eviction. Between 2021 and 2023, evictions in the county increased significantly as pandemic-era protections ended.
How Latina Women and Their Families Are Impacted
The affordable housing crisis has a disproportionate impact on Latina women in Merced County, many of whom are the primary caregivers and breadwinners in their households. Latinas make up a powerful voting bloc in the region and across California, yet face unique structural challenges. Latinos account for 60% of Merced County’s population, but are underrepresented in homeownership due to a long history of discriminatory lending, redlining, and exclusionary zoning. Latinas in particular earn less than their male and white counterparts, and are more likely to work in caregiving, food service, or education sectors that are essential but low-paid. Many Latina-led households are renters, and the gap between rent and income is growing unsustainably.
These disparities are not just economic; they are generational. When families can’t afford stable housing, children’s academic performance, emotional health, and physical well-being suffer. This weakens the future workforce and perpetuates cycles of poverty.
The Role of County Government
Counties have the power to fund affordable housing through direct support to low-income programs, rental assistance, and construction of new units. They also influence housing access through zoning decisions and by supporting (or underfunding) critical partnerships with nonprofit developers.
Merced County’s proposed $1.15 billion FY 2025–2026 budget allocates only $11.5 million toward all housing-related programs combined, including just $1.5 million to its Affordable Housing Program. In contrast, $54.8 million is allocated to the Sheriff’s Department. Without adequate investment, the housing crisis will worsen, especially for Latino and working-class families, who are already bearing the brunt of its consequences.
Despite repeated calls from CNC and other community groups, the Merced County Board of Supervisors passed the FY 2025–2026 proposed budget on June 17, 2025, without significant increases for affordable housing. CNC’s Racial & Gender Justice Budget Equity Campaign is urging the county to revise the budget before final approval on September 23, 2025, to:
- Ensure the budget reflects the current housing crisis
- Increase funding to the Affordable Housing Program
- Improve the budget process with more transparency and community input, including public workshops
Conclusion
When counties invest in affordable housing, they reduce homelessness, stabilize working-class families, and help residents build generational wealth. But when they don’t, low-income renters, especially Latinas and their children, face instability, chronic stress, and fewer opportunities to thrive. For Latina voters in Merced County, affordable housing isn’t just about shelter. It’s about economic dignity, health, and the right to raise families in safe, stable homes. Inaction means more families forced to live in cars, crowd into single-family homes, or leave the Valley altogether.
Affordable housing builds stronger schools, safer neighborhoods, and a more inclusive economy. It also reduces the long-term cost of emergency services, shelters, and incarceration. The evidence is clear: it is cheaper to house people than to manage the consequences of homelessness. We have a choice. Counties can build a future where Latina moms, abuelitas, and daughters have housing they can count on or they can let inequality grow. The solution begins with the budget.
Take Action
Join the CNC EF Racial & Gender Justice Budget Equity Campaign:
- Contact the Merced County Board of Supervisor that represents your city. You can identify them by using this county mapping tool.
- Call or email your County Supervisor to share how the affordable housing crisis is impacting your family. Ask your County Supervisor to increase funding to the Affordable Housing Program.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Wildfire & Smoke Experiences Project
In partnership with the University of California, Irvine, Program in Public Health, CNC Education Fund examined the health impacts of short-term repeated exposure to wildfire smoke or smoke events, such as fires associated with agriculture burning and illegal burning operations. The project focused on the unincorporated communities of eastern Riverside County, including Mecca, North Shore, Oasis, Thermal, and the tribal lands of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. Through multiple focus group discussions, the project engaged more than 100 neighbors and family members, representatives from the Coachella Valley Unified School District, County of Riverside, South Coast Air Quality Management District, and more. In March 2024, the project hosted a community workshop and delivered vital findings and recommendations to families, community members, and stakeholders.
In the summer of 2024, the paper, Repeat Wildfire and Smoke Experiences Shared by Four Communities in Southern California: Local Impacts and Community Needs, was published in Environmental Research: Health. The multidisciplinary, open-access journal addresses critical global challenges at the interface of the environment and public health in a way that bridges scientific progress and assessment with efforts relating to impact/future risks, resilience, mitigation, adaptation, security, and solutions in the broadest sense. The Results and Recommendations in English and Spanish provide a condensed version of the paper with its top learnings.
LÚCETE LATINA
Video Series
Since 2021, CNC’s Lúcete Latina program has highlighted stories of women throughout California, paying particular attention to Latinas in the San Joaquin and Coachella Valleys. The Latinas that are “luciendo” or “shining brightly” are fighting to end the profitability of white supremacy by organizing, advocating, and voting for policies that uplift their neighborhoods. These Latinas are leading the way for their families, neighbors, and the state on everything from achieving housing justice, health equity, reproductive freedom, environmental justice, and more, creating a Liberation Economy where people of the global majority or people of color can thrive.
As a result of the 2020 census and subsequent redistricting, California now has three new Latino-majority districts, California Congressional Districts 13, 21, and 22 - which translates to Latina power! Latinas are now the largest racial/ethnic group in the state. Voter data shows that Latinas are registered to vote more than Latinos and show up to vote more than their male counterparts by 5%. This data is confirmed by the work CNC does on the ground. We know that when Latinas are engaged, they register, vote, and activate their families, friends, and neighbors.
Access the Lúcete Latina Video Series at CNC EF's YouTube channel.