Wednesday, July 07, 1999
Landlord admits bias against blacks
White couple brought complaint
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A federal consent decree is ending the first Tristate housing complaint in which a white couple complained that a landlord's discriminatory policies would deny them the benefits of interracial living.
In the decree, Arthur J. Ungerbuehler admitted discriminating against blacks and families with children at his Lakewood Acres Mobile Home Park in Harrison.
“He had no trouble with that,” Karla Irvine, executive director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), said Tuesday.
The settlement requires Mr. Ungerbuehler to:
• Pay $110,000 to Betty and Ron Zumwalde, HOME and winning attorney Matthew Brownfield.
• Allow HOME to monitor how he runs Lakewood Acres for five years.
• Accept fair housing training by HOME.
• Abstain from any illegal discrimination.
On Tuesday, Mr. Ungerbuehler appeared unrepentant. “I'm still doing it,” he said. “I haven't done anything different.”
Ms. Irvine said the case was signif icant because it was the first brought by whites who said a discriminatory landlord denied them the freedom to live where they chose and “enjoy the benefits of living in an integrated community.”
The case began two years ago when the Zumwaldes, a white Price Hill couple, encountered Mr. Ungerbuehler when they sought a lot for a mobile home they were buying.
The Zumwaldes said he made it clear blacks would not be welcome as residents or guests.
They said Mr. Ungerbuehler feared blacks would overrun the facility if they saw how nice it was and turn it into a slum.
The Zumwaldes complained to HOME, a nonprofit open-housing advocate. HOME sent testers to the trailer park to build its case if the suit had to go to trial.
Ms. Irvine said Mr. Ungerbuehler refused to give the black tester an appointment but encouraged the white tester to buy a recently repossessed mobile home.
Ms. Irvine said Mr. Ungerbuehler told the second black tester that no lots were available but told the second white tester that two were free.
Testers also said Mr. Ungerbuehler told them he segregated families with children in a separate section of the trailer park. That, too, is illegal under federal fair housing law.
Heat staggers Midwest, East
Highway gets too-early test
Impeachment managers go on Internet to 'fight back'
Separatist group has P.O. box here
Term limits start a candidate flood
Cable access producers head to town
County: 1 weather warning system
Grants for 'innovative' Mill Creek solutions
Passers-by help save driver of fruit truck on AA Highway
RSViP Club a hot ticket
Car fire, homicide mystify police
Covington police project credited with 14% drop in major crime
Donkeys captivate with charm
Girl, 3, stable after near drowning
High-tech fire trucks debut
Jailed mom rejects move
Jurors want Rogers to die
McConnell will steer Bush's Ky. bandwagon
Money short, but enthusiasm high for Green Township park
Residents voice concerns over proposed connector
School building boom is summer assignment in Warren County
Talawanda readies funding plan
Vote delayed on bids to tear down City Centre
Annexation paves way for upscale development
Cab co. got off easy, spurned customer says
Florence golfers shine in Special Olympics
Killer sentenced to death
Landlord admits bias against blacks
Lockland chief on trial
Winburn proposes gun-victim law
GET TO IT
TRISTATE DIGEST
