Meet the Live Where You Work Challenge Finalists

Every year, the people who teach our kids, care for our neighbors, and keep our community running face a harder and harder question: can I still afford to live here? When the people who teach our kids, care for our neighbors, and keep our community running can no longer afford to live here, we all lose something. Neighbors become strangers. Teachers leave schools where they once knew families by name. The people who give a place its character can no longer stay.

That’s the question behind the Live Where You Work Challenge: what would it take to keep our community whole?

After an open call for bold, practical ideas, we’re proud to introduce five finalists whose approaches reflect the full range of what’s possible.

Mountain View Community Land Trust

First, meet Mountain View Community Land Trust (MVCLT): The only community land trust in Mountain View. MVCLT grew out of Fondo de Solidaridad, a mutual aid fund that put $2 million directly into the hands of working-class Latino immigrant families. Because of that history, MVCLT is deeply rooted in the community it serves.

Today, a seven-member grassroots Leadership Council of working-class Latina women guides the organization. Each member brings decades of experience as organizers, educators, and advocates. Their model permanently removes housing from the speculative market so that once a home becomes affordable, it stays that way forever.

The United Effort Organization

Next, meet The United Effort Organization. Every single day, The United Effort Organization works alongside 785 unhoused neighbors in Mountain View and Los Altos. Many of those neighbors hold jobs right here in our community. Even so, they simply cannot afford to stay.

The United Effort Organization understands the gap between local wages and local housing costs better than almost anyone. As a result, their approach stays grounded in real experience. They see housing solutions hiding in plain sight as spare rooms, ADUs, and cottages that already exist in our neighborhoods. By connecting homeowners with local workers and seniors priced out of the community, The United Effort Organization creates affordable housing through trust and relationships, not new construction.

Leadership Mountain View

Since 1990, Leadership Mountain View has served as one of Mountain View’s most enduring civic institutions. Over 36 years, Leadership Mountain View has connected residents, business leaders, city officials, and nonprofit professionals across every part of community life. In doing so, they have built the relationships and trust that make hard conversations possible.

Now, Leadership Mountain View puts that convening power to work on the housing crisis. Specifically, their proposal immerses current and future decision-makers in the real experience of housing insecurity through poverty simulations, lived-experience panels, and collaborative projects. When Leadership Mountain View brings people into a room, things happen. That is exactly what they are putting to work here.

Catalyze SV

For nearly a decade, Catalyze SV has helped Silicon Valley communities imagine more sustainable, equitable, and vibrant places to live. Throughout that time, they have built deep roots in grassroots organizing, community education, and housing advocacy. Moreover, they have a proven track record of showing up where it matters most from Mountain View city council chambers to neighborhood doorsteps.

When it comes to building community support for housing change, few organizations in our region have done this work longer or more thoughtfully. Because of that experience, Catalyze SV brings a unique ability to move hearts and minds on housing issues right here in Los Altos and Mountain View.

Stewards of the Land

Finally, meet Stewards of the Land (SOL), an organization with a vision that is as practical as it is inspired. SOL believes the solution to our housing crisis might already exist in our own backyards. Rooted in ecological thinking and a deep commitment to neighbor-to-neighbor relationships, SOL brings together homeowners, essential workers, and sustainable building practices.

Their model helps homeowners build low-cost, eco-friendly ADUs using natural materials like strawbale and cob. Then, SOL matches those homes with local essential workers at little or no cost. As a result, SOL creates housing that shelters people and strengthens community bonds at the same time.

Five Organizations. One Shared Vision.

These five organizations do not just address housing. Together, they raise deeper questions about ownership, belonging, and what kind of community we want to build together. We are proud to celebrate each of them and grateful to everyone who submitted an idea this year.

To learn more about the challenge, visit lamvcf.org/live-work.