The Catholic Worker movement started in 1933 by activists Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin aiming to create a better world through promoting nonviolence, voluntary poverty and serving those in need, including providing a home where\u00a0poor people could find refuge.<\/p>\n
The San Jose house provided a safe, temporary\u00a0place to live for women and children. Catholic workers lived in the house with the\u00a0families and provided meals and mentorship to help them find permanent homes.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The house) provided belonging and community and support to the women and children who were in need,\u201d Fumi Tosu, a Catholic worker who formerly lived and worked at Casa de Clara, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cBut I think also it provided a vision or a model for an alternative way of being, that Catholic workers would choose often to leave their careers and their salaries and live simply in community, in prayer, and just live this alternative vision for societies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maldonado said Amigos de Guadalupe<\/a> is still deciding what groups the home will serve, but there will be no time limit to a person\u2019s stay. The nonprofit will help re-home the family of five living at Casa de Clara before bringing new people in, she said. Rehabilitation is expected to be done later this year.<\/p>\n This is the first home Amigos de Guadalupe has purchased, but Maldonado said it won\u2019t be the last. She wants to help families in East San Jose own their own homes, whether that is through housing co-ops, backyard homes and other creative solutions. Silicon Valley boasts one of the most expensive housing markets<\/a> in the nation, where the median price of a home is nearly $2 million \u2014 about five times<\/a> the national price.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us in Santa Clara County, when housing is so expensive, our job is to try to find different models, different ways of building homes and welcoming people into the community,\u201d Maldonado said. \u201cSo, (Casa de Clara) is a seven-bedroom home, and it\u2019s not huge, but it\u2019s one more way of filling this new model of housing for one more population of our community here.\u201d<\/p>\n Homeownership is another way to build inherited wealth, an area that Latinos in\u00a0Santa Clara County struggle with more than other groups, where they make up half the homeless population<\/a>.<\/p>\n Latino residents live in poverty at double the rate of other families in the county, according to a recent health assessment report<\/a>. From 2017 to 2021, Latinos\u2019 per capita income was $31,662, less than half of what it was for all county residents. In addition, Latino renters were more cost-burdened, at 57% compared to 45% of all households renting. Fewer Latinos said they lived in a stable environment.<\/p>\n \u201cExtremely low-income families are hit hardest by our housing affordability crisis and too many of these households are pushed into homelessness as a result,\u201d Chad Bojorquez, chief program officer for Destination: Home, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cWe\u2019re proud to partner in this project, preserving the safe, dignified housing resources families deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"In-line](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/interactive-321838904008.png\")
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