Man opens his $4 million home to homeless Oakland couple—police keep getting called

In January of this year, Otis R. Taylor Jr. wrote an article for the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the lives of 53-year-old Marie Mckinzie and 61-year-old Greg Dunston. The two have been together for over ten years and have been homeless in Oakland for the last six years. Mckinzie had been in a 20 year battle to get disability income. Both believed a victory was right around the corner and they would be able to move into an apartment with the potential money—specifically the back money that would have come with a legal win. Taylor wrote the article about how Mckinzie’s claim was finally dismissed in September, ending their hopes of finding housing. 

The story touched a wealthy Alameda County resident, Terrence McGrath. He owns a $4 million home in the very exclusive Piedmont, California. Reading about the middle-aged couple sleeping in a building doorway moved McGrath enough to make a courageous decision. McGrath decided to find the two and open his home up to them. 

The 60-year-old McGrath grew up in the Napa region of California with eight siblings, and told Taylor that his family had hit a lot of hard times throughout his childhood. With his daughters off to college and having an extra “in-law” on his property, he thought it was the least he could do to help the couple. According to Taylor, Mckinzie and Dunston were wary of moving into the affluent area but were convinced it was the best thing to do.

For the past three months, the two have been living in McGrath’s home in Piedmont. Mckinzie has a limp and Dunston walks stooped over, and the two are black. They have also lived for no less than six years on the streets of Oakland without a home. Since the two have moved in, local police have been getting calls about two suspicious black people walking around Piedmont—frequently sitting at the bus stop, waiting for their bus. This was something that McGrath anticipated and had sent an email to the police chief Jeremy Bowers explaining the couple would be living with him, writing “I am letting you know in case Piedmont PD gets a call about an African American couple walking in the neighborhood around Hampton or La Salle.” 

To understand how exclusive Piedmont, California is, you must also understand its proximity to Oakland. It is inside of Oakland. All borders of Piedmont touch some part of Oakland. Incorporated in 1907, Piedmont was called the “City of Millionaires,” and has kept its autonomy as a predominantly single-family residential zoned area with some of the oldest mansions in the region. It has all of the things a city has and takes nothing from Oakland because it doesn’t want anything from Oakland. It’s built up in the hills and when you go to the area it is beautiful and well appointed. Politically, Piedmont’s been blue since Bill Clinton converted them in 1992. Before that, Piedmont voted decidedly for Republicans. The population of Piedmont is around 11,000 and predominantly white.

According to the Chronicle, the first calls came in two days later. McGrath has been steadfast in his resolve to help house Dunston and Mckinzie, telling Taylor that the problem of unhoused people is our humanity’s greatest failure. “It’s an absolute reflection of us. There is no other way to see it. Just because it’s there doesn’t make it right or make it acceptable.”

I implore you to go and read the full story here.

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2Wul4Ru