Tribute to Kerstin Arusha

We honor the work of our dear colleague and friend, Kerstin Arusha, who lost her battle with pancreatic cancer on April 15, 2008.

As directing attorney at Fair Housing Law Project (FHLP), Kerstin Arusha was the leader of a team of dedicated litigators who continue to battlie housing discrimination and predatory mortgage lending throughout Santa Clara County since 1998. As a litigator, Kerstin was fearless and tenacious, with a unique ability to achieve exceptionally generous outcomes for her clients, particularly in settlement negotiations, in which her persuasive and analytical skills were possibly most evident. As a leader, she was brilliant, creative, inspirational, and dedicated to self-improvement. As a colleague and friend, she was loyal and devoted. She was one of those rare individuals who was able to say that she has a job that was perfectly suited for her and that she was perfectly suited to do; this work was her calling.

Kerstin began her career at another of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley’s programs, Mental Health Advocacy Project (MHAP), in 1996, where she worked tirelessly to preserve housing and prevent homelessness for hundreds of low income clients with serious mental health disabilities. At MHAP, Kerstin successfully defended clients in eviction actions for discrimination and retaliation. She crafted long-lasting agreements with landlords to allow clients to stay safely in housing when symptoms of their disabilities put their tenancies at risk. She spearheaded community outreach and education efforts to clients at residential care facilities, homeless shelters and mental health clinics. Kerstin achieved system-wide reforms though her advocacy with the local housing authority and other subsidized housing providers.

In 1998, Kerstin co-founded FHLP to provide free legal representation to victims of housing discrimination in San Jose. She directed her unstoppable and focused creative energy to building FHLP into one of the finest fair housing and predatory lending law firms—whether non-profit or otherwise—in the country. As directing attorney, Kerstin developed community coalitions and crafted winning grant proposals to expand the program from two attorneys and one legal assistant to five attorneys and two legal assistants. She litigated numerous cases resulting in large financial settlements and major policy changes; she had the prescience to identify and successfully litigate seemingly-impossible cases in which new law that increases protections against housing discrimination was created.

Some highlights:

• In Sisemore v. Master Financial, Kerstin persuaded the California Court of Appeals to take an expansive reading of state law prohibiting housing discrimination based on source of income in ruling that mortgage lenders—not just landlords who rent—cannot discriminate against applicants simply because their income is from operating home day cares. As a result of Kerstin’s advocacy, the Court also found for the first time that the California Unruh Civil Rights Act protects individuals from being discriminated against in housing based on their professional occupation.
• In Munoz v. Int’l Home Capital Corp., Kerstin and others on the Law Foundation’s legal team won a motion to dismiss hearing on behalf of more than a half dozen families against unscrupulous mortgage brokers and lenders who targeted Latino borrowers for high-priced loans with hidden, onerous and unfair terms. The Federal Court attributed all of the broker’s bad actions to the lender, which allowed for greater relief for the plaintiffs when the case eventually settled.
• In Janush v. Charities Housing Dev. Corp., the District Court agreed with Kerstin’s analysis for establishing a prima facie case in a discrimination case against a landlord for failing to reasonably accommodate a tenant’s disability.

Well before the mortgage lending crisis hit the national headlines, Kerstin had the foresight to build FHLP’s predatory lending practice and expertise. She wisely devoted a significant portion of FHLP’s resources to file lawsuits against mortgage brokers and lending institutions who set up unsuspecting borrowers in mortgage loans with unfair, unaffordable and, misleading (and oftentimes fraudulent) terms. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, she became an expert in this exceptionally difficult legal practice area, which the vast majority of legal aid offices and private law firms are barely now learning even exists. She and her staff have saved numerous homes of seniors and limited-English-speaking clients whose vulnerabilities were taken advantage of by hucksters engaging in despicable and illegal mortgage lending practices. Kerstin single-handedly convinced the City of San Jose to establish a $50,000 loan fund to assist buyers who have been the victim of predatory lending.

While Kerstin did not seek the spotlight personally, she had been very successful in attracting media attention for FHLP’s work with articles by the New York Times, USA Today, L.A. Times, the San Jose Mercury News and more.

Although Kerstin was an impressive litigator who achieves excellent outcomes for her individual clients, she always emphasized the importance of education and training to prevent discrimination and predatory lending from occurring in the first instance. She created and delivered many effective fair housing trainings for tenants and landlords. She wrote published articles about litigating fair housing cases, including one that sets forth her signature “dance” analysis for bringing disability reasonable accommodation claims. Kerstin translated her natural litigation abilities into interactive trainings for Law Foundation staff including how to take depositions, how to negotiate settlements and more.

One of the most remarkable aspects of these accomplishments is that they were achieved while Kerstin worked a part-time schedule as the mother of twins, now 6 years old; because of her strong commitment to balance between work and life, Kerstin will always be a model for other Law Foundation attorneys who wish to have families.

Kerstin has, in the past year, received several posthumous awards.  Kerstin was awarded the 2009 "Screaming Eagle Award: by the California Reinvestment Coalition to acknowledge her outstanding local community reinvestment work.  She was also give the first annual "Kerstin Arusha Award" by Project Sentinel as well as California Department of Fair Employment and Housing’s “Unsung Heroes Award,” for her cutting-edge work in the fair housing arena.  

Please join her family, friends and colleagues in celebrating Kerstin’s work and the passion she brought to it.

• To send a message of tribute to Kerstin Arusha'sfamily and colleagues to honor her work at Fair Housing Law Project, click here.
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  Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
  111 West St. John Street, Suite 315
  San Jose, CA 95113
  Attn. Alison Brunner