Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article “I’ve lived in this house since I was 4 years old,” Johnson said. “I’m 62. My parents left me this house.” Johnson’s parents bought the house after moving from Montgomery, Ala., to Hayward in 1961. It’s the house she and her siblings grew up in, and it has […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Neighbors rushed into the yard of the San Jose house that she had rented for 20 years, yelling “fire.” One of them grabbed a hose from next door and sprayed the roof as an electrical fire began to spread and melt the gutters. Barragan ran. Not out, but […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Moving gingerly because of his bad back, Mike Dennis pulled himself into the driver’s seat of his green Ford Ranger pickup and reclined the seat. “This is how I slept for months,” he said. “I’d take off my shoes and wrap up in a sleeping bag and comforter.” […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Amid the millionaires and billionaires of Silicon Valley, the working poor and cash-strapped college students struggle to pay ever-increasing rent, leaving little left over for food. And, increasingly, they are turning to Second Harvest Food Bank for help. These workers, many with two jobs, and college kids with […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Ximena Rodriguez’s daughter wasn’t feeling well. She had a fever and was complaining of a sharp pain in her stomach. It’s appendicitis, the doctors told Rodriguez when she brought 9-year-old Isabella to the hospital in June. They’d take out her appendix, and she would be fine. Rodriguez could […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article After singing her way through Drake High School in San Anselmo and making it through several elimination rounds on “American Idol,” Kelli Peterson moved to Hawaii to record and perform her own style of soul-reggae under the stage name Kelli Love. She built a $15,000 studio behind her […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Five days a week, eight hours a day, Karen Chaney stands at a Walmart cash register, working a full-time job at 67 to make sure she can stay above water financially and keep her East Oakland house. “It’s hard,” Chaney said as she sat on her living room […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Year after year, Patti Medina answered the phone at the Oakland unemployment office. She filled out forms for strangers laid off from work. Helping strangers was her job. She never figured she’d be the next person needing a stranger’s help. Until she was. In April, Medina’s 10-year-old daughter, […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Life usually changes for the worse when you fall off a ladder. Not always. For Dora Castillo, who fell from a ladder in 2002, things didn’t get worse at all. Even though she broke her foot, and even though she got fired from her job as a San […]
Explore OurStories of Hope Share this Article Abdul Nasiri, his wife and four children left Kabul in 2016 for a new life in Oakland with only several changes of clothes. They wanted to save most of the space in their suitcases for their children’s academic accomplishments — report cards, certificates of achievement and medals they’d […]
