City Government

Brooks Helps Family After City Sewer Crew Wrecks Their Home

Published

12 years ago

October 3, 2014

Gerard and Christina Gray have been working with the City of Oakland for over a year to get back into their home after a city crew accidently caused sewage to back up into their house – completely destroying it.

< p>< p>During that time, the couple says, they have been able to turn repeatedly to their representative, City Councilmember Desley Brooks, who has worked with the City Administrator to overcome bureaucratic obstacles to make sure the city fulfilled its responsibilities to the family.

“We knew this was the city’s fault, and this family should not have to go through this,” said Brooks.

“Along the way, we’ve talked to Councilmember Brooks when the city was not hearing us,” said Christina Gray.

The Gray’s nightmare began on July 16, 2013 when a city crew was working in the neighborhood using pressurized water to flush out the sewer lines, and something went wrong.

Apparently, there was too much water pressure, and a camera had not been used to check the pipe. As a result, sewage erupted from the bathtubs, drains, sinks and toilets in the Gray’s home at Keller Avenue and Mountain Boulevard in East Oakland.

The raw sewage contaminated the garage level and the two levels of the home. The liquid that pooled on the floor of the top level sank through the flooring, causing the ceiling of the first level to collapse.

The Grays, who had been living in their home for 15 years, had only an hour to go into the house in HAZMAT suits to gather their clothes and few personal possessions.

Their home had to be gutted.

The couple moved with their three children to a hotel. Since then, they have lived in hotels and moved six times. Their renovated home is supposed to be ready in January.

The couple called Councilmember Brooks who talked to the City Administrator when the city was being unresponsive.

Though city willingly accepted responsibility for the repairs, staff objected to paying for the family’s hotel stay.

City staff also pressured the Grays to accept the cheapest contractor, who would not thoroughly renovate the home but would instead clean and reinstall the old fixtures and patch instead of replace walls, according to the couple, who had to pay an attorney to represent them.

“(Originally,), all they did was give us a claim form and tell us to save the receipts so we could be reimbursed at the end,” said Gerard Gray, pointing out that the couple has had to continue to pay the mortgage and all the utilities for their home for the 15 months that they have lived in a hotel.

In addition, the City Attorney’s Office in writing agreed to waive permit fees for rebuilding. But staff changed their minds and wanted the couple to pay many thousands of dollars in fees.

Councilmember brought a resolution recently to the full City Council, which voted unanimously to waive the fees.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”