Where Exactly Did Kamala Harris Grow Up? Details on Her Childhood Home
"The middle class is where I come from."
Published Oct. 15 2024, 2:28 p.m. ET
Vice president and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris frequently highlights her middle-class upbringing and her time working at McDonald’s as a way to demonstrate her commitment to advocating for working families. Born in Oakland, Calif., to Donald J. Harris, a Jamaican economist, and Shyamala Gopalan, a cancer researcher from India, Kamala’s parents met while studying at the University of California, Berkeley, during a study group for Black students, per The New York Times.
Kamala was born in 1964, and her younger sister, Maya, followed in 1967. Unfortunately, their parents divorced in 1972, and Kamala’s mother moved back to Northern California from the Midwest, taking on the role of primary caregiver. With Kamala emphasizing her middle-class upbringing in her campaign, it makes us wonder — what was Kamala’s childhood like, especially her home life? Where did she live and create those childhood memories? Let's dive in.
Where is Kamala Harris's childhood home located?
Kamala Harris and her sister Maya when they were toddlers
Kamala spent a significant part of her childhood with her mom and sister in a small yellow house on Bancroft Way in Berkeley, Calif., in an area known as the "flatlands," according to The San Francisco Standard. The property featured two units, an upstairs and downstairs, with the downstairs unit operating as a daycare center. Kamala and her family lived upstairs for roughly six years.
Her childhood home is located just under three miles from Thousand Oaks Elementary School, which now features a mural dedicated to her.
In her 2019 memoir, Kamala described her neighborhood as one filled with "working families who were focused on doing a good job, paying the bills, and being there for one another," The New York Times reported.
Before moving into the unit above the daycare facility, sources claim that Kamala's parents lived in an apartment building at 2531 Regent St., near Telegraph Avenue, around the time she was born. When describing her upbringing, Kamala has often emphasized her mother being a renter, highlighting the modest, working-class environment she grew up in.
The apartment Kamala Harris lived at when she was born
On Instagram, Kamala shared that it took her mother "well over a decade to buy a home," adding, "I was a teenager when the day finally came — and I can still remember how excited she was."
The vice president also explained in a Facebook post that while her mother worked long days and weekends as a breast cancer researcher, she and her sister would often walk "two doors down to the home of Mrs. Regina Shelton." Kamala credited Mrs. Shelton with helping their mother balance her career and family life.
Kamala also mentioned in her 2019 memoir that she lived in an apartment building at 1945 Milvia St. and Berkeley Way, close to downtown. She recalled that this was her home when her parents separated, with the photo dated January 1970. She noted that from that point on, they were known as "Shyamala and the girls."
While much of her upbringing was rooted in the Bay Area, she often visited her father in Palo Alto, sometimes on weekends or during summer breaks.
