The Housing Research & Advocacy Center was awarded the Community Shares Member Organization of the Year Social Justice Award at the Community Shares Power Lunch and Annual Meeting on June 28, 2011.

Patricia Burgess, President of the Board of Directors, and Hilary Mason King, Executive Director, accepted the award on behalf of the organization.

The organization was recognized by its' peers for its' social justice work to promote fair housing and diverse communities, and to work to eliminate housing discrimination in Northeast Ohio, by providing effective research, education and advocacy.

Under the principled leadership of our former Executive Director, Jeff Dillman, our team – Hilary King, Carrie Pleasants, Darlene English, Krissie Wells, Zachary Crafton, Denise Cooper and Irving Graves worked with the support of the Board of Directors over the last year to achieve these accomplishments:

• Hosted an accessibility (design & construction) seminar featuring national fair housing expert Sara Pratt, HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs, to educate local government building code officials in addition to hosting numerous trainings for landlords, realtors, transitional housing consumers and municipalities.

• Completed and released 5 research reports on fair housing and fair lending issues.

• Filed 33 discrimination complaints with HUD based on race, national origin, familial status, disability & gender.

• Received grant awards from the Cleveland Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, The William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neil Foundation, the Woodruff Foundation, the HUD Fair Housing Initiatives Program, the HUD Fair Housing Education and Outreach Initiatives program, and a number of municipal contracts.

• Settled the federal discrimination suit against Cleveland Developer K&D and its architects requiring the builder make all common areas and all 107 units accessible for people with disabilities. The developer also must pay $567,000 in damages, attorneys’ fees and costs.

The work of Jeff Dillman had an impact that reached beyond our region.

• He was invited to speak in Michigan at the National Association for County Community & Economic Development on local governments’ obligation to affirmatively further fair housing.

• Jeff also testified in Atlanta before the Federal Reserve Board on revisions to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, calling for increased transparency and a more user-friendly format.

The Housing Center is certain that he will continue to make a difference as a humble but extremely effective advocate for civil rights. While all the Housing Center’s accomplishments are significant, we believe that there is still a lot of work to do for the benefit of Northeast Ohio. We are launching a new strategic plan to create even more effective fair housing programs including more advocacy, expanded research, and outreach and education to empower more individuals and communities. We look forward to participating further in the partnerships forming to improve the quality of life in our region and look forward to taking the lead to foster diverse communities where equal opportunities in housing are assured and all neighborhoods are desirable because they offer quality education, food, access to healthcare, a sustainable environment and housing choice for all.