Medical Bills Could Cost Oakland Family Their Home

County says house needs to be sold to pay for ailing homeowner's expenses

Sell your house to pay for your healthcare. That's exactly the situation one East Bay family is facing.

They say the county is set to sell the family home to pay for the homeowner's healthcare.

Margot Bohanon is distraught at the thought of being forced to move from the Oakland home she has lived in with her mother nearly all her life. “I feel that our world has been turned upside down we don't have a place to go,” she said. “It is not much. It is not fancy. But it is our home.”

Bohanon’s 88-year-old mother, Louise Salvin, has Alzheimer’s disease and recently moved into a Berkeley care home, but the senior's medical care has been costly, and now her court-appointed public guardian has sent an eviction notice to her family, informing them the house needs to be sold to pay for the ailing woman's expenses.

“It has been very difficult for me to face her knowing what is happening against her wishes,” Bohanon said. “This is exactly what has happened to us. We are being made homeless.”

Bohanon, who herself suffers from a disabling autoimmune disease that makes it tough to get around, has no idea where she and her teenage daughter will go.

“This is our house, but we are not respected,” Bohanon said. “We are not respected that this is our home as well.”

Salvin’s attorney, Kathy Siegel, says the public guardian is in a tough position but worries her client's health will suffer if her family is displaced.

“It's a really sad case,” Siegel said. “It's not good for her mental health. It's not good for her physical health. I think it's a devastating thing to think you can't take care of your family."

Bohanon is getting more anxious with each passing day. With a daughter in high school, she is terrified at the prospect of being forced to the street.

“Where are we expected to go?” she said.

A spokesperson for the Alameda County Department of Social Services declined to talk specifically about this case, but did release a statement: "If any action we must take to preserve the estate assets of our conservatee affects family members adversely, we are committed as a Social Services Agency to explore all options to make favorable outcomes for all."

Siegel said there is a push to convince a judge to allow Salvin to give the house to her daughter and granddaughter, but as of now the family has been ordered to vacate the home by Feb. 13.

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