We are thrilled to announce LCBH Alumna Sherrill Frost-Brown will receive the 2025 Sharon L. King Distinguished Alumni Award at LCBH’s Fall Benefit on October 9th at Buddy Guy’s Legends.
Sherrill began her career at the Law Center for Better Housing in the late 1980s. Known as the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing at the time, she was among the first volunteers and employees to work in the small store front office serving renters in Rogers Park, alongside LCBH founders David Orr, Jack Kaplan, and Jack Doppelt.
“One time I was speaking to Jack Doppelt, who was seeking housing for his childcare provider, about the rising cost of living and the need for investment in my parents’ neighborhood, and he asked, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ That single question prompted me to continue my community work and improve the block where my parents had invested their life savings. No matter the problem, there was something I could do,” Sherrill said. “The more I worked, the more I was able to discover what it means to be a housing advocate.”
In true nonprofit fashion, Sherrill did a little bit of everything while on staff, serving as LCBH’s secretary, grant manager, and pro bono and intern coordinator, while also helping clients with referrals and document preparation.
“What I remember most from LCBH is being able to make folks feel heard. Of course, we’re not able to help everyone, but we can give someone the dignity of being heard and give them some options. From there, they will be empowered to make a better decision about their housing situation,” Sherrill said.
This was especially true when LCBH launched their hotline for housing discrimination complaints following the 1988 amendment to the Fair Housing Act, which added protections for families with children and people with disabilities. Within a few months, LCBH was a partner organization helping to audit landlords and investigate housing discrimination against families and people with disabilities.
“It was astonishing to me the level to which we were seeing this discrimination. This was beyond inhabitability or an absentee landlord, which we were seeing regularly, this was someone using fear and illegal practices to exclude people from being housed,” Sherrill said.
In one case, a landlord in a building less than a block from LCBH’s office was preying on young single mothers living in shelters and college students, promising them units if they slept with him. When LCBH’s attorneys took the case, most complaints were about race, religion, or other protections, according to Sherrill. Even still, they investigated the sexual harassment under the Fair Housing Act. Later, when more victims were discovered, the Department of Justice was able to bring charges against the landlord.
“We would walk past that building to get to work every day, and we had no idea the harm that landlord was inflicting on his tenants. When the DOJ got involved, it was not just life changing for the women, but also for all of us who were involved. It proved just how powerful the Fair Housing Act was for vulnerable populations,” Sherrill said.
Building on this case and others like it, Sherrill’s passion for housing continued to blossom throughout the next decade, as she moved on from LCBH to the Interfaith Housing Center of the Northern Suburbs (now known as Open Communities), and then later to the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), where she serves as Senior Vice President for Member Services.
“For me, it’s full circle that I’ve come to NFHA, where fair housing is everything we do. We work to ensure communities are well resourced and free from discrimination so that everyone had the resources they need to survive,” Sherrill said.
For her entire career, Sherrill has fought to strengthen housing protections for those most vulnerable and create a sustainable Fair Housing Movement. For all these reasons and more, we hope you’ll celebrate Sherrill with us on October 9th, 2025, at Buddy Guy’s Legends. Meet our other award winners and secure your tickets here.