Fair Housing Council Seeks New Leader, More Stability

For the fourth time in three years, the Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley is looking for an executive director, and some say the ongoing turmoil is undermining its efforts to battle housing discrimination.

The council, one of the oldest such civil rights agencies in Southern California, fired its executive director in May for incompetence. The council’s previous director was fired in August, only five months after taking the position, for uttering a remark interpreted as anti-Semitic. Before that, the position was vacant for nine months after the departure of a director who held the position for less than a year.

Partly as a result of the staff turnover, the Fair Housing Congress of Southern California, an umbrella organization that distributes city and county grants to the six housing councils in Los Angeles County, in August placed the Valley council on probation and began monitoring its performance. Marcella Brown, the congress’s executive director, said the probationary status would continue indefinitely.

Staff Turnover

Brown said the number of housing discrimination complaints investigated by the council has not dropped significantly as a result of the mostly volunteer organization’s problems, including frequent bookkeeping errors, overly ambitious fund-raising goals and rapid staff turnover.

But the number of council investigations resulting in complaints filed with state or federal fair housing agencies or in private lawsuits fell from 20 two years ago to six last year. Brown said the congress also began to hear from clients who said they were unable to get the Valley council to pursue their discrimination complaints.

In November, the council hired Juan Solis, an experienced housing coordinator, and the investigative activity began to pick up, according to council and congress representatives. The number of formal complaints filed rose to 15 during the fiscal year that ended June 30.

“There is a tremendous amount of housing discrimination in the Valley,” said Mary Lee, president of the congress’s board of directors.

Complaints Shift

The nature of complaints in the Valley has shifted somewhat from racial discrimination and discrimination against children to denial of housing based on prospective tenants’ religion or national origin, Solis said. He said a growing number of Arabic and Latino people are complaining about housing denials.

Brown said the housing congress became concerned last year when the Valley council’s performance began to falter after many years as the most aggressive in the city. “The council did go from being one of the top councils in the city to not being one of the top councils, and that is why they are on probation,” she said.

But Holly Azzari, president of the council’s board of directors, said she does not believe that the apparent revolving door for executive directors has hurt the agency’s ability to investigate discrimination complaints.

“The reality is that we have gone through three executive directors and it doesn’t enhance our reputation, but the other reality is that we are doing just fine,” Azzari said. “While there may have been problems last year, there aren’t any now and we are feeling very positively.”

The councils find and train volunteers to serve as undercover checkers, who attempt to buy or rent housing from sellers or landlords suspected of discrimination. In recent years, the councils have investigated a variety of other tenant-landlord disputes, a responsibility that some believe is stretching their resources too thin. The San Fernando Valley council covers an area from Glendale and Burbank on the east to the Ventura County line. Its territory stretches north to Palmdale and includes the Santa Clarita Valley.

Lee said the San Fernando Valley council continues to meet the terms of its contract with the congress. The council’s outreach efforts and its handling of complaints have satisfied contract minimums.

But, she said, the congress’s board of directors feared that the Valley council’s performance was declining.

“That’s why we’re monitoring so closely,” she said. “Our staff is going to make sure they aren’t so low that they can’t” satisfy their contract terms. “We don’t want to run that risk. We want the community to be able to get the service it needs.”

Private Sources

The congress this year will provide about $110,000 to the Valley council from contracts it has with the city and county. The Valley council will need to raise about $20,000 from private sources.

Janet Sohm, the congress’s assistant director, said that in the past the Valley council has set unrealistic fund-raising goals and then fallen short. Last year, the council wrote a budget that required raising nearly $80,000 from outside sources.

When former executive director Richard L. Levin was fired in May, Azzari said he had been an ineffective fund-raiser.

Brown and Lee at the housing congress said the vacancy is particularly inopportune. They said the congress is negotiating a new contract with the city of Los Angeles to cover the 1989-90 fiscal year. Although a budget and a contract for the San Fernando Valley council have been submitted, they have not been approved by the City Council.

If the City Council requests additional information from the Valley council, it will be difficult to supply it, which may hold up approval of grants for the entire city, Lee said.

Clearly, “the best thing for them would be to get good staff up and running,” Lee said.

Thomas A. Nowlin III, a council director who heads the search committee for a new executive director, said the present problems are forcing board members to function as day-to-day managers.

He said finding the right person to fill the job, which pays between $27,000 and $33,000 a year, is critical.

“It’s critical because with an efficient, proficient executive director, the board can be about the business of identifying the priorities for combatting discrimination in housing,” he said.

Search Committee

The search committee has written a job description more specific than those in the past, placed ads and begun reviewing applications, he said. A selection is expected by September.

The executive director manages the council’s office, administers its programs and contracts, and acts as its chief fund-raiser, Azzari said. Although Solis has been effective as a housing coordinator, Azzari said, he has never expressed interest in the executive director’s job.

She said the council’s dismal record in hiring competent leadership is a coincidence that she cannot explain.

“I’ve been involved in the selection of each of the three, and I’ve been pleased with each of them,” she said. “And then some unexpected large deficiency appeared. We obviously have not done a good enough job in our screening or we would not have made these mistakes.”