In attempt to clear space for a planned expansion of the 710 Freeway, the California Department of Transportation took control of homes along a five-mile stretch in the 1960s, displacing hundreds of families along the way. Now, six decades later, after the project never happened, several of those homes are hitting the public market for the first time.

As reported by KTLA’s Omar Lewis, the California Highway Commission, which has since been consolidated into the California Transportation Commission, purchased 400 homes with the intention of demolishing them to make room for a 710 Freeway extension. That project never got off the ground and was formally canceled in 2018.

Those homes, located in El Sereno, Pasadena and South Pasadena, remain standing today. Many of the seized houses were in Black and low-income neighborhoods.

“These five historic homes have essentially been locked in time since the 1960s, sitting unoccupied,” Lewis said. “They will go on the market later [Friday].”

The homes for sale include four single-family houses and one multi-family lot with bungalow. The Dave Knight Real Estate Team is in charge of the sales.

The decision to sell comes after activists have pushed for the homes to be occupied by families for years. In 2020, several of the El Sereno homes were taken over by homeless families, before they were evicted by the California Highway Patrol.

There was no listing price for any of the homes as of Friday morning, though the market rate for similar housing in the area is upwards of $2 million.

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