Nomination for the Arlington County, VA, Human Rights Commission 2001 James B. Hunter Human Rights Award
The following nomination was placed before Arlington's Human Rights Commission, by Arlington County Board member Walter Tejeda:
We are pleased to submit for your consideration, the name of Albert C. Eisenberg, former Arlington County Board chairman and member.
Mr. Eisenberg exemplifies the award that bears Jim Hunter's name. A colleague of Mr. Hunter's throughout that leader's service on County Board, Mr. Eisenberg has a long, distinguished, and accomplished record in the field of human and civil rights. His record is one of action, rooted in a life of service and a commitment to the rights of all people.
Mr. Eisenberg's efforts span the range of human and civil rights issues and have had impact at all levels of government.
The right to housing
Mr. Eisenberg has fought for adequate, affordable housing as a basic human right. At the national level he championed the development of programs and funding for low and moderate income people, helping to develop some of the most important national laws to aid in preserving and creating affordable housing, including every housing and community development law enacted from 1976-82.
Mr. Eisenberg has been among the County's foremost advocates of affordable housing for low and moderate-income people. He was instrumental in two sets of major reforms of the County's housing grants program, to make it more effective and to ensure its long-term availability. He was the principal proponent of the impact fee program that collects funds from developers to use for affordable housing in the county, and played a significant role in the establishment of the County's affordable housing loan fund and its special affordable housing preservation district, which received national recognition. He authored both the Citizens Advisory Commission on Housing and the county's Affordable Housing Task Force. He was a co-founder of the Washington Area Housing Partnership and of the Northern Virginia Housing Coalition. The latter organization was a major force in the state's establishment of the Virginia Housing Partnership Fund for low and moderate income housing purposes, and the Virginia Housing Fund at the Virginia Housing Development Authority which uses its excess reserves for housing preservation and homeless assistance.
He has been a courageous voice for the homeless and those with mental and physical disabilities, championing the establishment of homeless facilities and group homes in Arlington County. He voted for every group home permit that came before the Board during his service from 1984 and 1999. He was a principal proponent of the enactment of a state law, in force today, that exempts from use permit regulations the establishment of such homes for eight people or less. This act made clear that such homes were residences and the occupants should be treated no differently from residents of other dwellings.
As chairman for a number of years of the Arlington County Tenant-Landlord Commission Mr. Eisenberg was a leading proponent of tenant rights, promoting tenant organizing, first-right of refusal legislation, and condominium conversion rights for tenants, among other issues.
The right to own property
As a commissioner of the Virginia Housing Development Authority, Mr. Eisenberg was a leader in the fight to overturn that agency's discriminatory restriction against unrelated households in Virginia who were prohibited from borrowing mortgage loans. The restriction requires borrowers to be related by blood marriage or adoption. When the make up of the Board of Commissioners of the authority changed and efforts were made to restore the discriminatory rule, Mr. Eisenberg was the most outspoken advocate of fair and open mortgage lending, leading the fight to retain the non-discriminatory regulation, which unfortunately was not successful. He is currently developing a coalition to see to it that the restrictive regulation is repealed or that the Federal Reserve Board, with authority over the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, interprets its regulations so as to shut down the VHDA practice. For the two years that the open rule was in effect, unrelated households were given the opportunity to borrow money from VHDA to obtain their piece of the American pie.
The right to fair housing
Mr. Eisenberg was active in bringing the American Institute of Architects openly behind the Fair Housing Act Amendments, and contributed to its development. In Arlington and at the regional level, he fought against discrimination in housing against families with children--a major problem prior to passage of the Fair Housing act. In his role with the U.S. Senate and on the County Board, he fought for the expansion of fair housing efforts, including the use of testers on a coordinated, regional basis, and for additional funding for fair housing groups. The Arlington Affordable Housing Task Force, which Mr. Eisenberg co-chaired, included among its principles that there should be no housing discrimination in Arlington County.
The right to be secure against crimes of hate
For several years, Mr. Eisenberg was a vigorous, public advocate of the establishment of a hate crimes law by the Virginia General Assembly. He traveled to Richmond on several occasions to give testimony on behalf of the law and promoted it locally and at the regional level. The law was passed without a provision recognizing sexual orientation as a protected status. Mr. Eisenberg returned to the General Assembly several times to argue for its inclusion.
The right to fair employment and employee benefits
Mr. Eisenberg was an advocate of affirmative action in county hiring, helping to devise two affirmative action plans during his service on the Board in order to address the need for hiring and promotion into management posts of women and minorities. Mr. Eisenberg was also a vigorous and early proponent of the county's domestic partner benefits program, working to ensure its adoption. Although a court overturned the program, Mr. Eisenberg continues to espouse such benefits.
The struggle for human and civil rights is a never-ending one. It takes commitment, persistence, courage and leadership. Mr. Eisenberg has demonstrated those qualities throughout a lifetime of public service, and is worthy of the James B. Hunter award to an individual.
The right to access
In 1984, six years prior to the enactment of the ADA, Mr. Eisenberg inaugurated a new county capital program to place curb cuts at each Metro station according to a schedule, instead of waiting to do it only when the sidewalk/curb infrastructure had reached the end of its useful life. This program was made a specific part of the county's capital budget. Subsequently, Mr. Eisenberg played a substantial role in the development of the construction provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and in early implementation and compliance efforts. He ensured that the American Institute of Architects endorsed the legislation. To spread the message of the Act and to promote compliance, he appeared at seminars and public meetings locally and nationally as an expert on the provisions and the philosophy of the law. He is currently working with disability rights advocates on a proposal for local governments to engage people with disabilities as part of the design process for new buildings, facilities, and programs to ensure not just compliance but more importantly better access for little or no additional cost.
With candidate and then County Board member Bill Newman, Mr. Eisenberg was an early and vocal advocate for the creation of Arlington County's Human Rights Commission, and helped create it. He contributed particularly to its provisions involving prohibitions of discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation.