At odds over rent, preschool evicted from Roseville church

Happy Hearts Learning Center in Roseville announced Aug. 31 it would be shutting its doors after Matthew Oliver's Family Church evicted the preschool, according to a letter released by Happy Hearts owner Christina Yaeger. In the letter, Yaeger said Happy Hearts was served a 3-Day Notice to Quit, a commercial eviction notice, on Wednesday, Aug. 30. However, "We are currently in a lease with The Family Church until May of 2026," Yaeger said in an online description of a fundraiser for Happy Hearts. Reached by Gold Mountain California News Media, Attorney Chase Meister, who represents Oliver, said he wanted to "contradict a bunch of narrative and false statements about the situation," referring to Yaeger's letter. "Her veracity on matters is certainly lacking. … It's been interesting correspondence with her, to say the least." Oliver is pastor of Family Church and a Roseville businessman. According to Meister, Happy Hearts was initially warned of eviction on July 25 after multiple failures to pay rent, saying, "I was not retained by the church to kick them out, I was retained by the church to resolve a long-standing, accrued missed payments." He said a confidential settlement was offered on July 26 but was declined by Happy Hearts. Meister said the preschool owes more than $47,000 in rent. "That's not pocket change," he said. Family Church currently rents the space under a landlord, meaning Happy Hearts is a subtenant of Family Church. "If the day care doesn't pay for the space, then the church has to make up that money to pay their landlord," Meister said. Meister said "multiple efforts" were made between the church and Happy Hearts to come to an agreement for the preschool to pay its debted rent, such as making a payment plan. "The day care has refused good-faith settlement offers for payment in full and partial payments to eventually become current," Meister said. "Unfortunately, a complaint for unlawful detainer is the church's only legal recourse, given the day care's refusal to negotiate to resolve the outstanding rent payments." As of this Gold Mountain News article's publication, Meister has not filed the unlawful detainer complaint to Placer County Superior Court. Yaeger told Gold Mountain News, "I have every single month of bank statements; I was never behind on rent. … There was never a breach of contract." She said she emailed Meister the bank statements to prove Happy Hearts had never been behind on rent. It was after that, she said, that Meister claimed she had "too many licensing violations to correct." Yaeger contacted a state analyst to determine whether they had violations. They determined she had none, she said. "You've never even had a complaint from a parent," Yaeger said she was told. "All of the announcements Matthew Oliver and the church made were a constant defamation of my business trying to justify his actions to the public," Yaeger said. "They were fishing for any situation that would make the public question us. … Every time they came up with some story, I had the proof to refute it." The evictions and being alerted to move out all occurred in "about a two-week period," according to Yaeger. Yaeger said before the eviction, "Everything has been great. … Families loved coming." She said Oliver was bringing his son to their day care for about a year. Happy Hearts was told by Oliver they needed to vacate their space by Sept. 1, according to Yaeger. Yaeger alleged he wants the space to set up his own school, Liberty Learning. "We found out very recently that Matthew Oliver wanted to expand his school," Yaeger said. "He wanted to take over our space to expand his school. … He didn't even ask us, he just kind of bullied his way in." She said because they still had a lease until 2026 that was not broken, she felt within her rights to tell him no but, "He didn't care." "It's actually Matthew's son, Austin, who signed the lease," Yaeger said. "He's been really quiet about the whole thing, and it's mostly Matthew Oliver that stepped in." Yaeger explained that within a week of being asked to leave, Oliver had his daughter and other Family Church staff enter Happy Hearts, "trying to remove the preschool tables and chairs" during operating hours. She said Oliver pushed one table against the entrance to block it. "It escalated so quickly that we had to contact Roseville PD," Yaeger said. She said she decided to have the parents pick up their kids, saying, "They can't see this." Police told her during the incident it was a civil matter and to file a civil lawsuit. She has yet to file it but said she intends to. "It was very stressful and really sickening to have to shut down for his personal gain," Yaeger said. "I invested a lot into this business. I don't want to lose all of my belongings that I invested in. … It's how I put food on the table for my kids." Happy Hearts began as an in-home day care run by Yaeger and her husband, Scott, in 2013. "It quickly grew to need more space," Yaeger said in her letter. They partnered with Family Church and signed a lease to rent the church's Sunday classrooms "after having a wait list for years" in January 2020. "We're currently looking for a place to relocate to, and I know that a lot of our families will follow us, but temporarily, they had to be put in a hardship to find another place," Yaeger said. She is currently searching for a "convenient" location to lease. "We began Happy Hearts in 2013 and have so many wonderful memories. We were able to invest in hundreds of children's lives and really pray that we truly made their hearts happy," Yaeger said in her letter.