Activism

Once Homeless Real Estate Broker Authors Book on Building a New Paradigm in Real Estate

Valencia Burton Horton was then a real estate broker but couldn’t provide a home for her own family. She kept her faith and continued to move forward with Buddha International Realty, to help people in need. She sees that real estate agents and brokers need to improve how they operate, how the injustices of what happened to Blacks in American history needs to at least be acknowledged, and how we as individuals need to take care of ourselves and our character.

Published

3 years ago

October 23, 2022

Oakland Post

From left: Michael Horton, Oshalla Diana Marcus, Valencia Burton Horton and Paul Austin. (Photo by Godfrey Lee).

By Godfrey Lee

Valencia Burton Horton, a real estate agent and broker living and working in Oakland, recently gave a reading on her book “Buddha International Realty — Building a New Paradigm” at the Marin City Library.

A book-signing and reception were held for Horton at the Marin City Art Gallery. Paul Austin, who filed a lawsuit to expose racism in the real estate marketplace concerning the selling of his home in Marin City, interviewed Horton about her work.

Valencia Burton Horton was born in Oakland on May 13, 1976. She graduated from Hayward High School and went to live in Los Angeles with her husband Michael Horton and her five children. While Horton was still living in Los Angeles, she started her real estate agency, Buddha International Realty in June 2015.

When Horton decided to go back to the Bay Area, her five children were ages 17, five, three and one. They were hoping to live with her father-in-law, but he did not own the house he was living in and the owners made them get out.

The Hortons became homeless and lived, ate and slept around Oakland’s Lake Merritt in their 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan for more than a year. They would drive to a storage facility to wash in the public restroom and dress in their storage stall — even as the couple worked, and their children went to and graduated from their schools.

On page nine of her book, Horton writes that “rent in the Bay Area skyrocketed due to gentrification.” Workers in San Francisco would live in Oakland where rent was cheaper than San Francisco, and that the Tech workers from San Francisco through the Peninsula area and Silicon Valley often “would pay more than a thousand dollars a room.” There were also the “homeless tent encampments throughout the city (of Oakland) with unsanitary conditions — urine and feces reeked throughout.”

Horton was then a real estate broker but couldn’t provide a home for her own family. She kept her faith and continued to move forward with Buddha International Realty, to help people in need. She sees that real estate agents and brokers need to improve how they operate, how the injustices of what happened to Blacks in American history needs to at least be acknowledged, and how we as individuals need to take care of ourselves and our character.

Horton says she was influenced by the 2006 best-seller “The Secret” authored by Rhonda Byrne, that describes the “Universal Law of Attraction,” which says that “we shape our reality through our thoughts; therefore, whatever we think, we attract it.” But there are other qualities that Horton covers in her book that we can instill in our lives, such as Well Being, Authenticity, Integrity, Service, Community, Allowing, and Growth and Expansion. These principles will become a new paradigm for transformation, Horton said.

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Activism

Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

1 week ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.