A homeless Oakland couple moved into a $4 million Piedmont home; calls to police followed

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Greg Dunston and Marie Mckinzie lived on Oakland’s streets for almost 10 years, pushing their carts around with all their belongings and sleeping in the doorway of an Alameda County building.

But for the past three months, the couple have lived among the wealthy — on a nearly $4 million property in one of the Bay Area’s most exclusive neighborhoods in Piedmont. The homeowner, Terrence McGrath, did something few in his position would dare do: He opened his doors to homeless people in need.

Poor, black homeless people — in a mostly white, rich neighborhood.

Dunston and Mckinzie are more than turning heads whenever they venture out onto the sidewalk of Hampton Road — he’s 61 with a stooped walk and she’s 53 with a slight limp. They’re prompting phone calls to the local police.

“My officers are very familiar with who’s living in that house and what (the homeowner’s) trying to do,” Piedmont police Capt. Chris Monahan told me. “When people have called, we’ve not even responded. We’ve called them and said, ‘Oh no, those are the people that live in the house. (The homeowner’s) trying to help them.’ ”

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McGrath arranged to meet the couple in a downtown cafe. It was there he saw their carts tucked into a nearby corner — and that’s when he knew that letting them move in was the right thing to do.

He was living in a 4,500-square-foot home on an idyllic, tree-lined street. His daughters had gone off to college. And he had an empty in-law unit with a separate entrance, kitchen and bathroom.

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McGrath moved his king-size bed into the unit before the couple moved in on Feb. 1.

He also did something else: McGrath sent Piedmont Police Chief Jeremy Bowers an email about his new houseguests.

“I am letting you know in case Piedmont PD gets a call about an African American couple walking in the neighborhood around Hampton or La Salle,” McGrath wrote to Bowers on Feb. 4.

His neighborhood of 23 years lived up to his expectations. The first call to police came two or three days after the couple moved in.

On March 21, McGrath got a call from a woman representing the neighborhood association who said she was “concerned about the situation.” She told McGrath that neighbors feared for the safety of schoolkids.

“If you say hello to them, they can actually say hello back to you,” McGrath recalled telling the woman.

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