Gary Hermes, Aging Gayfully in the Moon Valley Mobile Home Park
Gary Hermes moved to his home in the Moon Valley Mobile Home Park in 2006. The 1969 mobile home needed significant work, and a low-interest loan from the County helped him replace the roof, repair dry rot, remodel the bathroom, and make other improvements. Over the years, he has created a gorgeous, carefully considered home layered with art, handmade objects, family keepsakes, and things collected over a lifetime.
Now retired and living primarily on Social Security, Gary teaches AGING Gayfully! A Class for LGBTQ+ Older Adults to supplement his fixed income. Rent protections on his space in the park have kept his housing costs low enough for him to remain in Sonoma Valley, a place he had felt drawn to since childhood.
Gary’s connection to Sonoma Valley began in his childhood. A child of Italian immigrants, he was born in Napa, and his mother would bring the family to Sonoma to dance the polka at Little Switzerland (now Bucks Place). He remembers falling in love with Sonoma then. As an adult, his work in took him to San Francisco and eventually Marin, where he worked on housing issues affecting seniors and low-income residents. In the mid-1970s, he bought a trailer in Greenbrae for about $7,000 and lived there for many years, while continuing to feel pulled toward Sonoma.
“It’s a special place, it’s a sacred place. I have also been to Italy a few times, and it’s the closest I can come to feeling like I’m in Italy. I always feel grateful for being here, always grateful, really blessed that this is where I wound up. It’s a small town, but still cosmopolitan in so many ways.”
— Maria Saldaña
As she got older, that question followed her into her education and career. While working at a check-cashing business, Maria met hundreds of farmworkers who worked long hours yet struggled to afford housing. Many lived in crowded conditions, rented rooms, slept on couches, or shared garages while sending money home to support their families. Their stories challenged her understanding of housing and inspired her to pursue a Master's degree in Urban and Public Affairs, where she focused on farmworker housing and quality of life.
Since then, Maria has dedicated her career to housing advocacy, focusing on farmworker housing and housing affordability throughout Sonoma and Napa Counties. While she worked on housing professionally, the issue was deeply personal. During the pandemic, she discovered woodworking. Later, she learned welding and began developing construction skills. As housing costs continued to rise, she found herself asking the same question many young adults ask: How will I ever afford a home of my own?
"I spend part of my days working on housing affordability for Sonoma Valley, and then drive to Graton to build my own house. It's given me a completely different perspective on permitting complexity, financing challenges, rising construction costs, labor shortages, infrastructure requirements, and land constraints.”
— Maria Saldaña
In 2023, Maria decided to build her way out of housing insecurity. With the help of her brother Ricardo, who is a general contractor with RMB BUILDERS, she began building a tiny home. The home is entirely customized, and coming together slowly as she pieces together funding from the money she earns working. Construction currently takes place in the parking lot of a church near her parents' home while she and her husband live on his family’s property and search for a small piece of land they can afford, hoping it will be in or near Sonoma Valley.
Along the way, Maria has learned woodworking, welding, framing, and countless lessons through trial and error. Her brother’s building experience and help on the project gives her the assurance that it’s all possible. Building the home on wheels has also become her way of navigating California's permitting landscape.
“Today, with a growing family and a baby on the way, housing means even more to me than it did when I was a child. Housing is more than a structure. It is stability. It is safety. It is opportunity. It is the foundation from which people build their lives, raise their families, and contribute to their communities.”
— Maria Saldaña
Curated by The Future Collective, photos by Kayla Schmah