Kamala slept here: A tour of Bay Area addresses Harris has called home

Kamala Harris’ close ties to the Bay Area are a key part of her story. Born in Oakland and raised in Berkeley, Harris returned to the area for law school in San Francisco before starting her career as a prosecutor in Alameda County. As the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee kicks off her bid for the White House, The Standard took a trip down memory lane and revisited some of her previous homes in the region.

Harris spent most of her early childhood in Berkeley, where her mother attended graduate school at UC. For around six years, Harris lived above a daycare facility on Bancroft Way in West Berkeley, an area known as “the flatlands” that was a center for the city’s Black population. The home is about 2.5 miles away from Thousand Oaks Elementary School, where she was bused as part of the city’s desegregation program. The school now boasts a mural featuring Harris alongside other women leaders. In typical Berkeley fashion, an effort to landmark Harris’ childhood home petered out after neighbors expressed concerns about disruption.

Harris was working as a prosecutor for Alameda County in 1993 when she purchased a one-bedroom condo that overlooked Oakland’s Lake Merritt for $116,000, according to public records. A former listing advertises the unit’s floor-to-ceiling windows and rear courtyard. Harris owned the 1,125-square-foot property when she was appointed by Willie Brown, then Assembly speaker, to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and, later, the California Medical Assistance Commission. The appointment by Brown, a former romantic partner, helped jump-start Harris’ political career but also led to allegations of nepotism that have continued to plague her. She sold the property in 1998 for $152,000, a few months after being recruited to join the office of then-San Francisco District Attorney Terrence Hallinan.

After moving across the Bay to San Francisco, Harris purchased a two-level condo in SoMa for $299,000. She owned the property when she was elected in 2003 as district attorney over her former boss Hallinan. She held onto the condo until 2021, when she sold it for $860,000. A VRBO listing for the unit said it offers “an amazing opportunity to live inside the home previously owned by Vice President Kamala Harris” and touts its full-size washer and dryer and proximity to the Moscone Center.

When she became vice president, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, moved into the position’s official residence at Number One Observatory Circle in Washington, D.C. The couple also own a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house in the tony Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Zillow values the home at $5 million.