The Washington, D.C., college student who gained widespread attention after befriending, feeding, and providing shelter for a homeless man named Alonzo Douglas Hebron earlier this year has enlisted the help of a lawyer to ensure she can continue supporting him.
Despite raising over $400K on GoFundMe to assist her “adopted uncle” in getting back on his feet, the fashionista has encountered major obstacles when it came down to accessing the funds raised for his care.
Frustrated and upset, she is urging her substantial social media following to pressure the crowdfunding platform to grant her access to the nearly half-million dollars.
According to Sanai Graden, she felt compelled to seek legal assistance due to GoFundMe’s lack of cooperation. However, documentation from GoFundMe tells a different story, placing the onus of action on the social media influencer and the man she affectionately refers to as “Unc.”
@hustlanani Replying to @04001021665879 ♬ original sound – Sanai Graden (Nai)
In a TikTok video, she shared that she first started the fundraiser after meeting him on Jan. 31 and that, as of that posting, there was “no progress.”
“I’m getting like frustrated and very irritated because the way I envision this to pan out was that by now, he would be in housing,” she said, adding she also thought that he would have been able to get the adequate medical care he needed as a cancer patient and she would be able to return to her normal life.
Over the last month, the TikToker has peppered her profile with updates about her and Unc, including noting that the Hilton has allowed him to stay in one of their extended-stay properties for the last few weeks. She occasionally pops up on her friend, buys him groceries, and checks on him, even finding out on a recent visit that he is a father of three (though only two are alive). His daughters have not appeared in her videos or seem an active support system in Hebron’s life.
In fact, it seems that he depends on the student, who has allegedly forked over more than $3,000 in cash and on her credit cards to care for him.
The young adult said that because she set up the fundraiser and Hebron was the intended beneficiary, some rules complicate getting the money raised.
In the video, she said, “I really don’t know what to do. I felt like everything I’m doing is right, and for some reason, it keeps getting stopped,” which is why she hired attorney Na’il Benjamin.
Graden said she was told by the lawyer, “[It could] go two ways: it turned into a lawsuit, or we could just work things out and just do whatever because GoFundMe is not really being cooperative.”
After a while, she explained why she believed this issue could turn into a lawsuit.
“I feel as though I’m being targeted because I’m African American, and he’s African-American as well, and his criminal history,” she said, adding, “I definitely feel like that’s why they’re doing this.”
A letter from GoFundMe shared on The Shade Room Investigates shows that the company is cooperative with the young woman and lawyer but has refused to release the money to Graden because it was raised for “Unc.” They called on the social media influencer and her lawyer to present Hebron to claim the monies intended for him.
“We respectfully disagree with your contention that we have deviated from our Terms of Service in any way, or that we have treated Sanai or Alonzo differently than we would treat any other organizer or beneficiary under similar circumstances,” the letter read.
“Our Terms of Service are designed to ensure that beneficiaries like Alonzo agree with how the funds raised for their benefit will be managed and dispersed,” it continued. “We understand that Sanai would like all funds to be released directly to her, at which point she will administer the funds to Alonzo. In order to release the funds directly to Sanai, however, we will need to ensure that Alonzo agrees with this plan, as he is the intended beneficiary.”
The representative from GoFundMe went on to say that now that it has been confirmed that Graden prefers the funds to be released directly to her rather than through the creation of a trust, the next steps involve establishing contact with Hebron and obtaining his consent.
This process will entail, according to the document, reaching out to Hebron and ensuring that he provides proper identification and authorization for Sanai to withdraw the funds on his behalf. He would then have to acknowledge his understanding of how Graden intends to utilize the funds for his benefit or how she will transfer the money to him outside of the GoFundMe platform.
“We understand that Sanai kindly helped Alonzo get a cell phone but that he doesn’t have an ID or email address, so we’d like to make contact with him over the phone first to begin the authorization process. We are, of course, happy to include you and/or Sanai on the call when we contact him,” the letter said, asking, “Can you or Sanai please provide us with Alonzo’s number so that we can initiate the authorization process?”
Adding, “To be clear, once we contact Alonzo and secure his agreement with the plan, we can work towards releasing the funds directly to Sanai. We simply need a means of contacting Alonzo to initiate that process.”
Atlanta Black Star reached out to Graden for a comment. She has not responded.
