Philip D. Star, Esq.

Chair, Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance

Philip Star, Moderator, was the second director of the Cleveland Tenants Organization (CTO). CTO lead the first successful large scale rent deposit at Forestdale Apartments using the new Ohio Landlord Tenant Law enacted in 1974. During Phil’s ten-year tenure at CTO, the organization counselled over 10,000 tenants a year, organized tenants in public, private and subsidized housing and worked for the establishment of the Cleveland Housing Court. After leaving CTO, he worked with Professor Dennis Keating on a study of the Cleveland Municipal Court that helped in the formation of the new Cleveland Housing Court. As Director of the Center for Neighborhood Development (CND) at CSU College of Urban Affairs, Phil continued his engagement on housing and tenant’s rights issues. He and Peter Iskin, at Cleveland Legal Aid, wrote the housing court rules that established the Housing Court’s Specialist’s program and then he worked with the Court to design and implement the court’s mediation program. At CND, he, Julie Rittenhouse, Don Slocum at Neighborhood Centers Association, and neighborhood leaders developed Neighborhood Leadership Cleveland (NLC), NLC has trained hundreds of Cleveland Residents in servant leadership and neighborhood empowerment and is now administered by Neighborhood Leadership Institute (NLI). Phil is a proponent of neighborhood planning and taught courses at CSU on Neighborhood Planning and Housing Policy. In retirement, Phil has continued his involvement in housing policy, participating in the Cuyahoga Affordable Housing Alliance (CAHA), the Vital Communities and Fair Housing Planning Committee, as well as serving as co-chair of the Housing Stability and Affordability Working Group of VAPAC (Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council).