While YIMBYs (yes in my back yard) and NIMBYs (not in my backyard) debate the ways to address housing in communities like Lafayette, Lamornindans like Jessa Alberto, Hugo Perez and Mimi who don’t have a backyard, have been left out of the conversation.
 
    “I love the community of Lafayette. There is beautiful open space, wonderful schools and it’s a great place to raise kids,” Jessa Alberto says. 

    Alberto moved to Lamorinda from the Philippines in 2006 and resides in a two-bedroom apartment with her partner and three kids (ages 4, 10 and 13). Alberto is a nurse in Hayward, but loves coming home to Lafayette. The one thing she wants more than anything is a backyard. “I think that’s the dream–to have a space of your own, where you can relax and have a garden. That’s a sacrifice a lot of us make to be here.”

    As the new developments go up in Lafayette, a small portion (roughly 15%) of the units are marked as below market rate–and sell for prices ranging from $250,000 for very low income families to $700,000 for moderate income families. To become eligible for such properties, people can upload applications to the myhousekeys.com website. Alberto says she appreciates knowing that’s available to her, but is skeptical about the accessibility.

    “I think they offer these lottery programs to us to keep our hopes up, but at the same time, there aren’t a lot of resources to help us.” 
    Hugo Perez moved to Lafayette with his wife and three children 16 years ago. Perez and his family now live in their third rental unit, which is the basement portion of a triplex that has two bedrooms and a den. “Our rent is $3,400 and we make it work, but if we wanted to get a small house so each of the kids could get their own room, we’d have to pay $5,500-$6,000 [per month].”

    As a union welder, Perez says he earns enough to live comfortably, but not enough to get a place in Lafayette. “If I get a 5% raise, the housing market goes up by 20%. No matter how many raises I’ve gotten, I’ve never had enough to buy a place in Lafayette,” Perez said.

    Perez applied for a moderately priced condo, but he earns slightly too much to be eligible now that his oldest daughter is at college. Instead, Perez bought land three hours away from the Bay Area, where, little by little, he’s chipping away at building a dream home, where he hopes to live after he retires in about 15 years. By then, his children who are now 13, 17 and 20 will be grown. “We would have loved to own a house,” Perez said. “Even if we couldn’t do that, we wanted to raise our kids here because we wanted our kids to also have access to the good schools that are here.”  

    Mimi, a single mom in Lamorinda who asked that we not use her full name, says she’s hanging on by a short thread as she tries to cover her $3,200 a month rent and childcare cost of nearly $2,500. With an annual salary of $80,000, Mimi has little to nothing left for food and utilities each month. “I’m in a place where I’m likely going to have to leave the community,” Mimi said. “The BMRs aren’t attainable for those of us who don’t have intergenerational wealth and I make just a little too much to be eligible for any government subsidies, but too little to make it.”
 
    Sunita Shastri has moved two times since she was profiled in the Lamorinda Weekly a few years ago. Shastri is a preschool teacher by profession and the mother of 10- and 13-year-old boys. “I moved to an old rickety building that came with lizards, rats and other rodents – and it was isolated and scary,” Shastri said. Shastri and her boys shared a room and had about $200 left to cover groceries, utilities and general expenses. 

    A little over a year ago, Shastri came up with a creative solution. She and her boys found a non-related roommate to share a two-bedroom apartment with. This is the fourth place that Shastri has lived in Lafayette, but it’s the first one that she’s been able to offer her boys their own make-shift rooms, which are essentially sleeping spaces divided by a curtain.
 
    “We are very comfortable here. The boys love having their own space and I have my own. The only worry that I have is that someday my roommate who is in her 70s may go back to live with her family,” Shastri says. “My fear is always that we wouldn’t be able to afford a place and then we’d be homeless.” 

    Shastri and Mimi are both women who have experienced domestic violence and rely heavily on the communities they’ve built. When asked about buying a place in Lafayette, Shastri flashed a hopeful smile.  “It would be a dream come true,” Shastri said. “But for now, I’ll just dream.”