CONTACT:
Dan Stotmeister
414-444-6328
Fair Housing Awards were presented on Friday, April 30, 2011 during the 2011 statewide fair housing conference of the Wisconsin Fair Housing Network, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin. Four fair housing awards were presented in various categories from among nominations submitted in response to a statewide solicitation to over 400 organizations. In addition, two special recognition awards were presented.
An Individual Volunteer Fair Housing Award was presented to Eric Kodner from La Pointe, Wisconsin. Mr. Kodner has been an active volunteer on the Wisconsin REALTORS Association’s Equal Opportunity Committee for many years and has donated his time to train many REALTORS in both Wisconsin and Minnesota in the non- discrimination provisions of the fair housing laws. He also serves on the National Association of REALTORS’ Equal Opportunity and Cultural Diversity Committee. In addition, Mr. Kodner was recognized for his efforts as the principal person who helped to achieve an amendment to the REALTOR Code of Ethics when the National Association of REALTORS adopted a change to their Code of Ethics prohibiting discrimination in housing on the basis of sexual orientation. Since the Code of Ethics covers both REALTOR-to-client conduct and workplace discrimination, it impacts 1.3 million member REALTORS nationally as well as a potential impact for 30 million people of our nation’s population.
An Individual Volunteer Fair Housing Award was also presented to Erich Schwenker from Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. Mr. Schwenker was recognized for his commitment to resolve accessibility barriers to housing while donating his time for the past 25 years to the Badger Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired. His efforts included financial oversight to the organization through his service on its Board of Directors as Treasurer, where his leadership helped change the operation of a boarding house owned by the Association to realize a positive cash flow, which has been maintained since 2002. The housing is specially designed with cues to ensure increased independence and enhanced quality of life for people with visual disabilities. Mr. Schwenker’s leadership also led to the creation of an apartment complex for persons who are deaf and hard of hearing. In addition, he volunteers to drive persons with visual impairments to their appointments and social gatherings.
The Fair Housing Individual Professional Award was presented to Brian Peters, Housing Policy Advocate, from IndependenceFirst, an Independent Living Center located in Milwaukee, which serves the four county metropolitan area. Mr. Peters’ work over the past 10 years includes research and updating comprehensive lists of affordable, accessible housing and making that information available in various formats, resulting in
a less cumbersome search for persons requiring accessible housing. He has authored a number of articles on housing to more broadly reach the public on barriers to fair housing choice encountered by persons with disabilities as well as for others. Mr. Peters was also recognized for his various contributions to educate and train people with disabilities on on how to look for, apply for and navigate housing barriers and other housing related topics in order to enhance successful longevity in their dwellings. As a result of his expertise and influence while serving on a number of taskforces and boards, there is now a review of accessibility in the local Regional Planning Commission’s housing study, various workshops presented at statewide gatherings in 2010 and 2011 and more affordable housing which incorporates elements of Visitability and Universal Design.
A Partnership Fair Housing Award was presented to Legal Action of Wisconsin, IndependenceFirst and Harvard University, for their work on the City of Milwaukee Chronic Nuisance ordinance. From within the efforts of the Milwaukee Housing Coalition, which has been advocating various affordable housing issues for over five years, these ward recipients became aware that many victims of domestic abuse, most of whom are women, were being evicted from their housing because of their abusers’ actions. Early in 2010, the State of Wisconsin amended its Open Housing Law to include a victim of domestic abuse as a protected status. Under the city of Milwaukee’s Chronic Nuisance Ordinance, a municipal tool used to improve residential neighborhoods, owners of a property can be fined for failing to address the nuisance. Meeting with the local apartment association it was learned that eviction was encouraged by the police department as the only acceptable resolution, although this typically made it difficult for the domestic abuse victims to obtain subsequent housing. Through their coordinated efforts in convening various stakeholders in the process, drafting proposed ordinance amendment language and providing the research background to support the need for a resolution to this fair housing impediment, these award recipients succeeded in obtaining an amendment to the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance that maintained its integrity in protecting neighborhoods while also protecting victims of domestic abuse from losing their housing.
A Special Recognition Award was presented in memoriam to David Balcer, who passed away in February 2011. The 2011 Fair Housing Conference was dedicated in his honor and to his more than 35 years of involvement in housing and community development activities in Milwaukee and Wisconsin. David completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin Madison and received his law degree from Columbia University in New York. He began his career as a general counsel in the savings and loan industry and managed mortgage lending and commercial real estate development operations for a number of years. As a member of a Redlining Task Force, David Balcer became a community development advocate. He co-chaired the Fair Lending Action Committee, which was formed to address lending gaps between minority and non-minority home mortgage borrowers. He continued this work as the founder and Executive Director of the Milwaukee Fair Lending Coalition and the Milwaukee Neighborhood Partnership. David joined the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1998 as a Community Builder where he continued to promote neighborhood planning and financing for the redevelopment of hundreds of affordable housing units in Milwaukee, as well as fair lending and home ownership. David retired from active service with HUD in July 2009, but he did not retire from his fair lending work or his commitment to the community.
A Special Recognition Award was also presented to Dan Stotmeister, who was recognized for the many services he rendered on behalf of the Wisconsin Fair Housing Network since its beginning over 25 years ago, as well as his commitment and efforts to further fair housing during his federal career. Dan recently retired from his position in Milwaukee with the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development where he served principally in the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, but also as a Community Builder.
