San Mateo County

Our Work in San Mateo County

In a geography that is separated by two major highways and comprises 20 cities, Faith in Action Bay Area’s leaders in San Mateo County have forged enduring, powerful relationships with each other, and in doing have advanced the dignity and well-being of immigrant and working families throughout the county.

These leaders organize their community in ways that are varied, creative, and impactful. Whether they are parents from Daly City elementary schools or congregants in the churches of San Mateo, Redwood City, Menlo Park, our San Mateo County leaders are always on the ground, listening to the pains and needs of their communities, inviting others to join the work, and building the power necessary to change things. They are serious in their approach to integrated voter engagement: since 2018, our leaders have called and/or visited thousands of low-income voters of color in the county, with hundreds of voters wanting to join our network.

Faith in Action Bay Area has always demonstrated great care and initiative in advancing the dignity of undocumented families in San Mateo County. In 2017, we created a county-wide Rapid Response line in order to offer support for those encountering immigration enforcement. Through the line, we are able to activate hundreds of volunteers to act as moral witnesses when ICE is present in our communities and to connect those in removal proceedings with legal help. In 2018, our clergy and lay leaders successfully petitioned the Board of Supervisors to create deportation defense fund for San Mateo County residents in removal proceedings.

Our organization has long been at the forefront of the struggle for housing justice in the county. Our leaders know what it is like to pay soaring Bay Area rents, live overcrowded housing, and work multiple jobs in order to support their families. And they are serious about doing what it takes to make sure that San Mateo County families can live free from the constant threat of eviction, whether it is by fighting for months to cancel the eviction of dozens of families in an apartment complex or successfully lobbying the city councils of Daly City, San Mateo, and Redwood City to enact rent caps and moratoriums on evictions.

2022: Our Redwood City team lead a dynamic voter and unprecedented voter engagement campaign this summer, talking to over 10,000 homeowner and renter voters about their experiences with housing and what they would like to see for their city.

2022: Redwood City City Council adopted two components of our Decent and Healthy Housing Platform in its Anti-Displacement Strategy! The platform would prevent landlords from harassing their tenants, limit evictions due to renovation, and create a rental relations office to support the rights of tenants and landlords.

March 2020: Trini from Redwood City and Isabel from Daly City called hundreds of their neighbors, urging them to support a moratorium on evictions in San Mateo County during the pandemic

*October 2019: Redwood City leaders plastering posters about a new state law on rent caps and eviction moratoriums*

daly_city_city_council_prayer — *October 2019: Late night prayers of Thanksgiving after a Daly City City Council Meeting, when an emergency moratorium on evictions was passed*