The Y-PLAN press coverage wave has continued! Y-PLAN Peninsula students are starting to see some initial steps taken by their Client Facebook in response to their concerns about affordability and displacement in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto and their proposals for using existing spaces within their communities to increase density and available affordable units. Their story has garnered much press and we’re delighted to see our Y-PLAN student scholars sharing their housing ideas and stories in print, on air, and on our TV screens! Read, watch, and listen below.

---

READ: These students had a housing idea. Facebook listened. Now, it’s becoming reality
$1 million pilot project will fund four affordable casitas
By Marisa Kendall, Mercury News, May 28, 2019

When 20 local high school students walked into Facebook’s office last year and laid out their plan for solving the region’s affordable housing shortage, they didn’t really expect the tech executives in the room to listen. But the Facebook team was moved and helped turn the students’ idea into a $1.1 million reality — a pilot program to fund four small backyard granny flats for low-income residents in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Facebook will contribute $325,000 to the effort, and Menlo Park-based nonprofit Soup will put in $775,000.

“It’s surreal to kind of see what we talked about actually happening,” said 16-year-old Nataly Manzanero Perez, a sophomore at Sequoia High School in Redwood City.

Full article on the Mercury News website.

---

WATCH: Bay Area students pitched housing solution to Facebook, social media leader listened
By Amanda del Castillo, ABC 7 News, May 28, 2019

Building a better Bay Area is a shared responsibility. Along the Peninsula, a group of high school students is rising to the occasion. The group pitched housing solutions to Facebook. Now, they're expecting big results in the form of small backyard housing units.

---

WATCH: Estudiantes hispanos crean solución para viviendas asequibles en la Bahía
By Telemundo 48, May 29, 2019

Full transcript available on the Telemundo 48 website.

---

WATCH: Students Partner With Facebook to Build Affordable Housing
By NBC News Bay Area, May 30, 2019

An effort by some young people to bring the price of housing down for families in the high-priced Bay Area got a big boost from a tech giant. Scott Budman reports.

Video clip available on the NBC Bay Area website.

---

LISTEN: High Schoolers' Big Idea to Mend Housing Crisis Gets Big Corporate Backing
By Keith Menconi, KCBS News, May 28, 2019

A million-dollar pilot project is aiming to take a bite out the Bay Area’s housing crisis by making accessory dwelling units more affordable. KCBS Radio reporter Keith Menconi says much of the funding is coming from Facebook, but the idea for the plan was cooked up by low-income youth.