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

4 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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Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

Published

20 hours ago

September 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association

The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”

Published

1 week ago

August 29, 2026

Post News Group

Dawna Williams, EOBA executive director speaks to attendees at the Black August Eperience on Aug. 21. Photo courtesy of Carolyn Flynn of EOBA.

By Jana Lang Propel Youth Reporter

Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association

The East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA) and Youth Alive! came together on Aug. 21 to share with their community all that Black August means to them.

Held on EOBA’s patio at 816 98th Ave. in Deep East Oakland, the two organizations hosted their second annual Black August Experience, featuring a food tasting, financial literacy and mindfulness workshops, and voter registration with the League of Women Voters Oakland (LWV).

Black August is known as a time to uphold the legacy of prisoners who protested their conditions by fasting, fighting, and educating themselves on the economic and political circumstances that contributed to their incarceration.

According to its website, “EOBA is a multi-service youth and community development hub that goes far beyond the ring. While rooted in the discipline of boxing, for nearly 40 years EOBA has also integrated robust programs in workforce development, food justice, afterschool enrichment, financial literacy, mentorship, and wellness.”.

The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”

Through Coro California, another leadership organization serving young people across the state for 80 years, they gained a broader understanding of Black August.

EOBA Executive Director Dawna Williams spoke about how much she learned about Black August from the youth who created it. “I let them educate me,” she said. Instead of talking about prison reform and mass incarceration, Williams and youth interns found that Black August meant so much more. “We would have done a disservice if we had just focused on who the people were and what their situation was…We tried to take their message from back in the day and make it relevant to the young people today. What do they need to know?”

Youth interns created and placed posters around the patio to help participants understand how traditional Black foodways, civic engagement, financial literacy, and the power of education are relevant to Black resistance today.

An EOBA member described Black August with Youth ALIVE! as “a whole vibe. “This year we added the Fun Zone for the kids, because you really cannot go wrong with a Fun Zone. I also loved seeing everyone chillin’ in the outdoor lounge, catching some Vitamin D and just enjoying a Friday evening together.”

The food tasting, a popular event from last year, featured traditional Black foods such as black-eyed peas, johnny cakes, and fried chicken. Led by Williams, the tasting included a talk about how these traditional foods were made and why they are forms of Black resilience.

The “‘Plate of History’ was a favorite of the online writers. “Fun, educational, and did I mention delicious? Our Taste of History cook, Angela Southall, served up some good eats while connecting food to history and culture.”

The writer also commended the “League of Women Voters Oakland for their civic leadership and for getting our young people informed, ready, and registered to vote.”

Overall, it was a “good Friday event in East Oakland,” the writer said.

Upcoming Black August events: Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), will host “Black August: The Arc of Liberation” at Oakland City Hall on Sat. Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The websites for East Oakland Boxing Association, Youth Alive! and CORO are sources for this report.

Jana Lang is an Oakland resident, teacher, gardener and poet participating in the Propel News Initiative.