In the midst of the Bay Area housing crisis, a Black-owned home, at 835 Page Street, is being sold and taken away from a Black family through illegal and shady practices. Black displacement is happening in the Bay Area at an alarming rate, so preserving Black home ownership is critical. Help us fight back!

The owner of 835 Page Street, Ernest Thornton, who purchased the home in 1965 using benefits from the GI Bill after serving in World War II and the Korean War, paid it off completely in 1994, and lived there until he died at the age 95 in May 2015. Now his closest family, who Ernest left the home to, have been forcefully evicted, and arrested for protesting the illegal eviction.

1. We are petitioning the Honorable Morris D. Jacobson of the Superior Court of Alameda to stop the pending sale of 835 Page Street in Berkeley, and to allow the family to buy the home at the $499,000 appraised value.
2. We are petitioning Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley to drop the charges against Ayo Chaney.
3. We are petitioning Roger Boaz and Les Palia to halt the pending sale of 835 Page Street and give Uncle Ernest's family and caretakers the chance to buy the home for its appraised value, as other families are allowed to do.
4. We are asking Assemblymember Tony Thurmond, Supervisor Keith Carson, and Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and City Council to investigate illegal real estate practices and pass laws to protect our families during this displacement crisis.

More Background:

When Uncle Ernest fell extremely ill at the age of 95, his immediate family in Berkeley -- Fulani Offutt, his niece, and her children Ayo, Mahasan, and Hassan Chaney -- decided to take turns living with their uncle, instead of sending him to a nursing home. Taking care of him was a 24-hour job.  On May 24th, 2015, Uncle Ernest passed peacefully at home in his bed.

Hassan Chaney, who moved from LA to help take care of Ernest, remained in the home after his uncle’s passing. The long-term and heart felt desire of the family was to keep their uncle’s home to preserve his legacy of self-determination and activism, and Uncle Ernest and his wife always talked about passing the home down to Fulani and her children for generations to come.  Uncle Ernest wrote a will with these intentions, but that document was stolen along with the deed to the home in a burglary.

During the probate process that occurred after Uncle Ernest’s death, the court-appointed fiduciary denied Ayo’s family the opportunity to purchase the home at its appraised value, even though most other families are given this opportunity.  The trustee Roger Boaz brought in his realtor friend Les Palia to sell the house immediately, and they fast-tracked an illegal eviction of Hassan while the family was out of town after he mentioned he would be traveling for work, forging Hassan’s signature on the documents and lying about serving him in person when he was not in the state.

This illegal eviction allowed for the speedy pending sale of the house to a buyer for $700,000 cash.  When the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office came to evict on June 1st, Ayo protested the illegal eviction from her family home and the denial to fairly purchase the home by lifting up the laws and refusing to leave the home when the sheriffs came.  She was arrested and charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of a court order and taken to Santa Rita County jail with $25,000 bail.  The DA’s office is continuing to pursue charges against her in an ongoing criminal court case.

Help us fight back against this shady and racist collusion to take our families’ homes!