Support the King Family

First, thank you to everyone who has supported my family and I. Please read on to see how you can continue to support us in the fight to secure our housing.

As you know, we are a Black family in Oregon. We have worked tirelessly to earn our place in this historically unfriendly state. Over the last five years, I have been a stable and responsible tenant. Since the death of my husband in May, I have been forced to reconcile with the factors that contributed to his suicide. In large part, the burden of low economic instability while continuing to pay rent to an owner who possesses so much inherited wealth. I have made several inquires and offers to purchase my home from our landlord, Sharon Prager. These were my genuine attempts to augment my own economic mobility, but all of my requests have been denied. It never happened before Eric died, and I can't help but wonder if he would still be alive if I had. 

Sharon Prager owns a company called eConcepts Communications, where she consults oil folks on how to have good public relations despite the deadly and poisonous consequences of their work. She has a degree from Stanford, where her first paper was on data survey of available resources. Sharon Prager is an out of state landlord who freely inherited at least five additional homes. She has never cared that my home has a severe mold problem, worsened by the fact that she had the cheapest (most toxic) carpet installed instead of something more prudent and sustainable, even though I have ongoing respiratory issues that she is aware of. Sharon Prager does not intend to upkeep this house and she doesn't need my home. Sharon Prager and her family are financially secure.

We are not. I am not a wealthy land owner. I'm a working class person. I have maintained this space for the last five years, not Sharon Prager. She directs the property management company to use the shoddiest materials at the bare minimum cost, claiming she is struggling financially. It is her choice to live beyond her massive means in San Mateo. A prudent person, gifted with the resources she inherited, might not expect to subsidize their life in one of the most expensive zip codes on the West Coast with payments from underserved tenants whose area medians are set at nearly half that scale. Perhaps she should have extracted her additional wealth from the oil, gas and concrete oligarch she lives for.We do not need to move and we do not need a new house. What my children and I need is a safe, reliable home surrounded by community who loves and cares for us. That is what we currently have and we are not giving it up. 

We do not intend to move.

We do not intend to pay rent.

Sharon Prager, our message for you is this: Do the right thing. Give this home to us.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eric King was a dear friend, parent, spouse, and comrade who departed this life on May 22, 2022, at the age of 35. Eric’s family and friends are shocked, devastated, and heartbroken.

All funds raised will support Eric’s wife Candice and their 4 children in offsetting the costs of traveling to Eric’s funeral in Tennessee and the costs of living and healing over the next year as the family navigates the long grieving process for the tragic loss of their husband and father.

Eric was an artist, a maker, a community cook, a caretaker, a brilliant thinker, and a beautiful, sensitive soul, who was and is deeply loved and will be profoundly missed.