FAIR HOffS~G NEWS - Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit

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Newsletter ojthe'Fait Housing Cent'eroj Metropolitan Detroit
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Silite 1020
\ 220 Bagley
-Detroit, Nnchig~h:4$226
(313)963-1274 ! Fax (313) 963-4817
[email protected]
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Volume 30, No.1
March, 2008
FAIR HOUSING
"TESTING"
TO BE FOCUS OF
APRIL 3, 2008
FAIR HOUSING
CONFERENCE
The Honorable Avern Cohn, Senior Judge, U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Fair Housing TESTING. How is it done? How has it been
used?When is it utilized? How effective is it in court actions?
How has it helped produce, since 1990, in excess of
$130,000,000 in financial payments to plaintiffs in fair housing litigations? How can I become a tester? These and many
other questions about testing will form the subject matter for
discussion at the Wayne State University Law School's FAIR
HOUSING TESTING CONFERENCE on April 3, 2008. The day
long conference (from 8:15 AM - 4:15 PM) will be held in the
Law School's Spencer M. Patrich Auditorium at 471 West
Palmer Street in Detroit.
Wayne State Law School Professor Emeritus, Otto Hetzel,
who is the Co-Director of the Law Schools' Fair Housing Education Program, wi II serve as the Conference Moderator for the
conference. Currently a practicing attorney in Washington,
D.C., in 1968 Professor Hetzel, prior to coming to the Wayne
State Law School, served as Associate General Counsel to the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where
he was responsible for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
and, in that role was a principal drafter of the 1968 Fair
Housing Act. Given that this April the nation will be celebrating
the 40th Anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act,
Professor Hetzel will share some of his experiences in the
development of the legislation and the actions taken to
achieve its passageone week after the assassinationof Dr. Martin Luther King.
The Conference will include special comments from
. Wayne State Law School Professor John Mogk, who is the Cor">.Director, along with Professor Hetzel, of the Law School's Fair
Housing Education Program. The Honorable Avern Cohn,
Senior Judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of
Michigan, who has presided over a number of housing discrimination lawsuits, will be the Luncheon Speaker, and The
Honorable Victoria A. Roberts, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, will make the concluding remarks in
The Honorable Victoria A. Roberts, U.S. District Court for
the Eastern District of Michigan.
the afternoon. A group of national experts associated with local
fair housing centers will share their thoughts about the practice and use of testing, including: Fred Freiberg, Field Service
Director, Fair Housing Justice Center of HELP USA, New
York, N.Y.; Ann Marquart, Executive Director, Project Sentinel,
Palo Alto, California; Vince larkins, President and CEO, Fair
Housing Center of the Greater Palm Beaches, Florida; Pamela
Kisch, Executive Director of the Fair Housing Center of Southeast Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Adding to the program will be presentations by several
attorneys who have utilized testing evidence in housing discrimination lawsuits, including: P.Rivka Schochet and Michelle
Crockett from the law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and
Stone, PLC; Judith levy, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan; liam J. Garland, Director of Litigation, Housing Rights, Center, LosAngeles, California; Stephen
Tomkowiak, Attorney located in Southfield, Michigan and an
Instructor for the National Fair Housing Training Academy; John
Obee, Senior Partner, Wood Kull Herschfus Obee and Kull;
Angelique Strong, Vice President and Corporate Counsel,
The Handleman Company, Inc.; and Jeffrey Taren, Partner,
Kinoy, Taren and Geraghty, Chicago, Illinois. FHC-Detroit
Board Chairperson and Attorney, Noel Saleh, and FHC Executive Director, Cliff Schrupp, will also be part of the presentation team. Assisting Professor Hetzel and Wayne State Law
Sch001in the development and coordination of the Conference
has been FHC Legal Services Coordinator, Michael Olshan.
There is no charge to attend the conference. However,
the noon box lunches and the attendee packets for the conference will be limited to those who have pre-registered for the
conference by March 20,2008. Interested persons can pre-register by contacting Mic'hael Olshan at the FHC office (313-9631274 or [email protected]).
Fair Housing News
Page2
FHC CASE UPDATES
The Fair Housing Center extends its thanks and appreciation to the plaintiffs, testers, witnesses and attorneys who have
assisted the cause of fair housing by participating in the following litigations. It is understood that in all cases reported in
this newsletter the defendant, unless noted otherwise, denies
the allegations of discrimination made by the plaintiff and, in
"settled" cases,the parties have agreed to resolve the case without a final determination by a jury or court. Some of the tests
and investigations conducted by FHC were paid for with
funds made available from the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development.
CLOSED CASE
Brennan v Waldman
Management
et al
Honorable Lawrence P.Zatkoff, U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Michigan, has dismissed, with prejudice, a
racial discrimination lawsuit filed by Lydia R. Brennan against
Waldman Management and Galpin Apartments. In 2003 Ms.
Brennan, an African American person, attempted to rent an
apartment at the Galpin Apartments in Royal Oak, Michigan.
She viewed an available unit but was told that the unit needed
repair work and she was not provided with a date on which
the unit would be ready for occupancy. After several attempts
to gain more information about an occupancy date Ms. Brennan, suspecting racial discrimination, declined the unit.
Two years later Ms. Brennan learned of the Fair Housing
Center of Metropolitan Detroit and informed FHC-Detroit
staff of the treatment she received. FHC-Detroit conduct racial
discrimination tests of the apartment complex, prompting a
referral of the complaint to FHC-Detroit Cooperating Attorney
Mark Magidson. A housing discrimination complaint was
filed in U.S. District Court that was assigned to Judge Zatkoff.
The defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss and for Summary
Judgment that was granted by Judge Zatkoff. Noting the evidence from statements made to Ms. Brennan by the Galpin
Apartments agent and reviewing the FHC-Detroit test results,
Judge Zatkoff concluded that " ...no reasonable jury would find
that these statements establish a discriminatory intent on the
part of the Defendants. The Center's findings do not advance
the Plaintiff's cause in this matter." The plaintiff has chosen not
to appeal the ruling by Judge Zatkoff.
CASE IN PROCESS
FHC & U.S.A.
v
General Properties
The last issue of Fair Housing News (Vol. 29, No.3)
announced the $725,000 settlement of a racial discrimination
lawsuit brought by the Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan
Detroit and the United States against the General Properties
Company and its principal owner, Elliott C. Schubiner. The
plaintiffs had charged that the defendants, owners of the
Whispering Woods Apartments (now called Apple Ridge
Apartments) in Livonia, Michigan had engaged in a pattern and
practice of discrimination against African American persons.
The defendants denied the allegations but agreed, in a Consent Decree signed by Honorable Gerald E. Rosen, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, to the $725,000
payment and to a number of provisions, including, in Paragraph
50f the Decree, to hire a rental management company that
would " be responsible for all aspects of the rental process,
including
showing and renting units, collecting rents, and
determining whom to rent to and/or evict." The Fair Housing
News article, after describing the major terms of the Consent
(continued on page 3)
James Stevenson, FHC Coordinator of Mortgage Investigations.
WELCOME TO JAMES STEVENSON
FHC-DETROIT COORDINATOR OF
MORTGAGE INVESTIGATIONS
On January 7, 2008 FHC-Detroit began work on a 12
month Fair Housing Enforcement Project that has been funded
by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) under its Fair Housing Initiative Program, Privater\
Enforcement Initiative (FHIP/PEI).This marks the 13th time that-,
FHC-Detroit has been funded under HUD's FHIP/PEIprogram,
but the first time that the grant has included funds for a parttime Coordinator of Mortgage Investigations. FHC-Detroit is
pleased to announce that Mr. James Stevenson has agreed to
serve as the Coordinator of Mortgage Investigations for this project.
Readers of this newsletter may recall that Mr. Stevenson
was the successful plaintiff in a 1995 racial discrimination,
mortgage lending lawsuit brought against the Towne Mortgage
Company (see F.H. News Vol. 17, No.4). A Federal jury
awarded $130,000 in damages to Mr. Stevenson after finding
that Towne Mortgage had refused to approve his mortgage
application for a home in Detroit because of Mr. Stevenson's
race (African American). Mr. Stevenson, worked closely with
his FHC-Detroit Cooperating Attorneys, Stephen R.Tomkowiak
and Pramada Reddy, to develop, evaluate and then convince
the jury of the strength of the evidence of unlawful discrimination in this case.
Following the resolution of his case Mr. Stevenson began
volunteer work with FHC-Detroit, primarily assisting FHCDetroit investigate and assist in the resolution of other complaints of unlawful mortgage lending discrimination. Over the
year,she has developed a remarkable knowledge of mortgage
lending laws and procedures and a unique ability to work with
complainants to help resolve mortgage issuesthat potentially
involve violations of state or federal fair housing and/or fair(~
lending laws. The HUD FHIP/PEI grant makes it possible for
FHC-Detroit to improve its ability to investigate and help
resolve complaints of ,unlawful mortgage lending discrimination. Mr. Stevenson is married and he and his wife, Lisa, live
in Detroit with their three children.
Fair Housing News
Page3
SAVE THESE DATES:
April 24, 2008
and
September 24, 2008
Friends of fair housing and of the Fair Housing Center of
Metropolitan Detroit may wish to mark the evenings of Thursday, April 24, 2004 for the Inaugural Fair Housing Attorney
Appreciation Awards Reception and Wednesday, September24,
2008 for the 11th Annual Fair Housing Leadership Awards
Reception. The April 24 Reception will inaugurate FHC-Detroit's
much over-due public appreciation of attorneys and judges who
have made significant contributions to the cause of fair and equal
housing opportunities. FHC-Detroit will be honored to present
the first awards to: Hon. Damon J. Keith, SeniorJudge, U.S. Court
of Appeals, Sixth Circuit; the law firm of Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone; and Mr. Saul A. Green, Senior Counsel of the
Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone law firm.
The September 24 Reception will recognize people in the
housing industry who have also made significant contributions
to the cause of fair and equal housing opportunities. Nominations for the housing industry award recipients can be submitted to FHC-Detroit by May 31, 2008. Additional information about each Reception will be provided in the next issue
of Fair Housing News.
FHC Case Updates
(continued from page 3)
. Decree, concluded that: "FHC-Detroit is hopeful, but not at
II optimistic, that the defendants will abide by the terms of
the Decree."
Lessthan six months after Judge Rosen signed the Consent
Decree, the U.S.A, with the concurrence of FHC-Detroit, has
fi led a motion with Judge Rosen to enforce Paragraph 5 of the
Decree because the " ...Defendants have failed to ensure that
a management company is handling 'all aspects of the rental
process' and have instead continued to manage the process
directly themselves." The plaintiffs had insisted on including
in the Decree the hiring of an independent management
company because the plaintiffs were not at all confident that
Mr. Schubiner could be involved in the process without
unlawfully denying African American persons housing because
of their race.
In affidavits attached to the U.S.A. Motion, a rental agent
hired by the new management company stated she had
resigned after three weeks of employment due to Mr. Schubiner's
" ...interference with my abi Iity to perform the duties of the job."
She further stated that when she " ... had shown some units to
new prospects, he asked whether they were 'his kind of people"', and, on another occasion, instructed her to accept an
Indian couple who had failed to meet the management company's criteria because "Indians pay their rent..." Also attached
to the Motion is a letter from Assistant U.s. Attorney, Judith Levy,
to Mr. Schubiner reminding him that in a phone conversation
with Ms. Levy, Mr. Schubiner had stated that he was "solely"
in charge of deciding whether to evict a tenant, and further
charged that he had recently encountered two African Arner0can
applicants who "weren't qualified to be a dog-catcher" and
were "utterly and completely ignorant." The U.S.A. Motion
requests that Judge Rosen enter an Order to enforce Paragraph
5 of the Consent Decree, require additional reporting of the
names of applicants to the U.S., and provide any other relief
that the Court deems in the interest of the public.
Maryellen
lewis, Principle
Investigator
for the MSHDA
Fair Housing Needs Analysis.
MICHIGAN STATE HOUSING
DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
APPROVES "ANALYSIS OF
IMPEDIMENTS" CONTRACT WITH
FHC-DETROIT AND THE MICHIGAN
FAIR HOUSING CENTERS
In 1998 FHC-Detroit and the other private, non-profit fair
housing Centers in Michigan completed the first "Analysis of
Impediments to the Exercise of Fair Housing Choice" for the
Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA). The
"Analysis" is periodically required by the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development of statesor local units of government that receive Federal Funding under the Community
Development Block Grant Program or several other housing
related federal programs. In October, 2007 the MSHDA sent
a "Request for Proposal" to conduct an update of the "1998
Analysis" and FHC-Detroit and the other Michigan Fair Housing Centers: FHC of Southeast Michigan (Ann Arbor); FHC of
Southwest Michigan (Kalamazoo); and FHC of Western Michigan (Grand Rapids); submitted a proposal that was selected and
approved for funding by the MSHDA Board of Directors on
February 27,2008.
Fortunately, for this second "Analysis", the Michigan
FHCs will have the assistance of Maryellen Lewis to guide the
Centers through this fairly mammoth data review and research
project. Ms. Lewis, a Board member of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and a private consultant on
global financing, mortgage lending, housing, community,
and organizational development issues, may be familiar to
many people in Michigan from her work as the founding Executive Director of the Michigan Nonprofit Association. With a
Bachelor's Degree from Stanford University, a Master's Degree
from Columbia, and currently completing her Ph.D. Thesis at
Michigan State University, Ms. Lewis brings an impressive educational and community service background to this project.
The "Analysis" will seek to identify any "impediments" to
the exercise of fair housing choice for persons, or groups of
persons, protected under the Federal Fair Housing Act or
other applicable federal and state fair housing laws. It is
expected that the "Analysis" will examine the housing and
mortgage lending discrimination complaint and complaint resolution activities of the various Centers; it will examine zoning and land use pol icies and practices; it wi II attempt to see
how'effective MSHDA's housing assistanceprograms have been
in helping to affirmatively further fair housing in Michigan; and
it will examine other local and state housing related policies
and practices to help assure that the State is working to effectively reduce and eliminate any "impediments" to the exercise
of fair housing choice. Staff from each of the four Michigan
FHCs will be closely involved in the project, especially helping to gather information about housing discrimination complaint activity throughout Michigan.
Page4
Fair Housing News
"THANK YOU" FROM FHC-DETROIT TO YEAR 2007
CONTRIBUTORS AND CONTRACTORS
The Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit is pleased to express thanks and appreciation to the many individuals(\
organizations, foundations, businesses, housing providers, financial institutions and government agencies that made contributions
to, and/or entered into contracts to purchase services from, FHC during 2007. FHC does not publish, in the Fair Housing News,
the names of the 250+ individuallfamily contributors to the Center (those names are listed in FHC's Thirty-first Annual Report),
but gratefully acknowledges the contributions received from those supporters in 2007. Listed below, with much appreciation,
are the names of the many organizations that contributed to FHC, including those groups that contributed to FHC's Tenth Annual
Fair Housing Leadership Awards Reception. Also listed below are donations from estates and trusts, matching gifts or gifts that
have been made in honor of specific persons, in addition to a listing of groups and organizations that have contracted with FHC
for fair housing services during 2007.
ORGANIZATIONAL
AAA of Michigan
ACLU of Michigan
ACCESS
American Jewish Committee
Associated Management Company
Beard & Associates
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan
Margaret L.M. Brown, PLC
Century 21 - Town & Country
Chase Bank
CMS Energy
Coalition On Temporary Shelter (COTS)
Cooperative Services, Inc.
Dearborn Federal Savings Bank
City of Dearborn Heights
Detroit Alliance for Fair Banking
Detroit Board of Realtors
Detroit Branch - NAACP
Detroit Metropolitan Apartment
Association
Detroit Urban League
Downriver Association of Realtors
DSR Properties
DTE Energy Foundation
City of Farmington Hills
Marcia Femrite Law Office
Fidelity Bank
Fifth Third Bank
First State Bank of East Detroit
Flagstar Bank
The Fourmidable Group
Franklin Bank
Full House Marketing
Green Hill Apartments
Grosse Pointe Board of Realtors
Group Five Management
Hannett, Wilson & Whitehouse
Hartford Memorial Baptist Church
Huntington Banks of Michigan
Independent Management Services
LR Management Services
LaSalle Bank
Lautrec LTD
Law Office of Lee and Associates
IN HONOR
Attorney Joan Blair in Honor of Attorney George Wirth
Bernard & Judith Cantor in Honor of Joyce Mittenthal
Elaine Donaldson in Honor of Karen J. Moore
MEMBERS/CONTRIBUTORS
League of Women Voters of Metro Detroit
City of Livonia
Livonia Housing Commission
Macomb County
Management Systems, Inc.
MAS CO Corporation
Mark Magidson Law Office
McDonald Management
McKinley Associates, Inc.
Metropolitan Consolidated
Association of Realtors
Metropolitan Milwaukee
Fair Housing Council
Michigan Association of Realtors
Michigan Department of Civil Rights
Michigan Heritage Bank
Michigan State Housing
Development Authority
Midwest Management
Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, PLC
National City Bank
Nette & Associates
OF ...
New Detroit, Inc.
North Oakland County Board of Realtors
City of Northville Housing Commission
Pearl & Associates
Pfizer Foundation
Premier Property Management
Presbyterian Villages of Michigan
Real Estate One, Inc.
Remerica - Hometown One
River Bend Apartments
Rosen Sugarman, P.c.
City of Royal Oak
St. Martin's Cooperative
Sterling Bank and Trust
Steve Tomkowiak Law Office
Village Green Companies
Village Green Management
Warren Bank
Western Wayne Oakland
County Association of Realtors
Wilson White Company
Wood KuII Herschfuss Obee & Ku II
MEMORIALS
Dr. Lowell Schrupp and Cliff Schrupp in Memory of Kirjah Franz
Lee & Larry Weber in Memory of Marvin Thomas
CONTRACTORS AND PURCHASERS OF FHC SERVICES
Benchmark - Fairway Trails Associates
City of Dearborn
City of Dearborn Heights
Flagstar Bank
Huntington Management
Independent Management Services
City of Livonia
L.R. Management
Management Systems, Inc.
Michigan Association of Realtors
Michigan Department of Civil Rights
Premier Management
City of St. Clair Shores
City of Southfield
City of Taylor
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
U.S. Department of Justice
Village Green Management
Waterford Township
Wayne County
City of Westland
A special THANK YOU is extended to some very special FHC friends (john and Janice Obee, Dr. Lowell Schrupp, and Christa
Schrupp) whose contributions and major financial loans to FHC helped the Center survive through 2007 until it received a payment from the Defendant following the settlement in FHC v General Properties. THANK YOU also to the law firm of Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone, PLC, whose extremely generous contribution of the major portion of the legal services for the FHC v
General Properties lawsuit made it possible for FHC to actually receive a substantial portion of the settlement. Attorney Saul A.
Green led the outstanding Miller Canfield team that included P. Rivka Schochet, Michelle Crockett, Freeman Farrow, Nicole S.
Kaseta, Barbara Sinicki, George Mesritz and Kathleen Neher.
Fair Housing Center of
Metropolitan Detroit
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