David Grabill, crusader for affordable housing, to be honored by Sonoma County Bar Association

David Grabill isn’t a judge or the sort of attorney who occupies a corner suite and grabs headlines with his victories in high-dollar lawsuits or TV-worthy criminal trials.

At 73, Grabill works out ?of the Santa Rosa home he shares with his wife, educator Dorothy Battenfeld. He’s an advocate for people with little power, little money and, often, no decent place to lay their heads.

Almost all that Grabill does involves the pursuit or protection of affordable housing. He can be a thorn in the sides of the city and county government officials who must respond to his allegations that their jurisdictions aren’t meeting the legal mandates for the creation of such housing.

“It’s not a very exciting issue in a lot of ways,” concedes the lifelong proponent of human rights. “But it’s a fundamental need.”

Given the modest footprint of his law office and the generally low-profile nature of his cases, Grabill was surprised to learn the Sonoma County Bar Association will salute him, a lawyer with what he calls “a very non-traditional and controversial law practice,” ?at its Careers of Distinction awards banquet on Oct. 16.

“I’m really honored to get it,” he said.

The black-tie-optional event, held at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel and open to the public, also will celebrate the career of Chris Costin, co-founder of Santa Rosa’s Beyers Costin Simon law firm. Costin, rated a Super Lawyer, is a civic leader who helped to create “Shakespeare in the Cannery” and whose firm is a major supporter of the new Children’s Museum of Sonoma County and the Center for Climate Protection.

Retired Judge Gayle Guynup wrote in a testimonial for Grabill that the bar association especially deserves applause for extending the Careers of Distinction honor to Grabill, someone “relatively unknown” in the county’s legal circles. He is, Guynup wrote, “unlike any past honoree.”

“His entire career has been devoted to public-interest law. He is one of the only public-interest lawyers in this region and persists despite the absence of any institutional funding.”

Many of the issues Grabill takes on originate with the small, activist organization he belongs to, the Housing Advocacy Group, or HAG. In one notable case, Grabill and HAG sued Santa Rosa in 2002, alleging that the housing element of the city’s new general plan didn’t address a shortage of homeless shelter beds and locations for affordable housing.

Grabill dropped the ?suit upon reaching a settlement in which Santa Rosa agreed to identify and rezone land that could be developed with 3,000 units of affording housing, and to create beds for 80 people at what is now known as the Samuel Jones Hall Homeless Shelter.

The city attorney at the time was Brien Farrell, someone who often found himself answering Grabill’s complaints. Now retired, Farrell nominated Grabill for the Careers of Distinction award.

“In my opinion,” Farrell wrote, “for decades David has been the preeminent public-interest lawyer in Sonoma County.” The former city attorney and Elsie Allen High School teacher praised Grabill as “scholarly, realistic, very knowledgeable and well prepared.

“He is never confrontational, he is very serious about the issues and forces his adversaries into a deeper analysis of the issues.”

A father of four and grandfather of five, Grabill said that though homelessness and a shortage of affordable housing remain chronic, he is encouraged that the current county Board of Supervisors is looking at creative ways to get people into homes.

“They seem to be following through and setting a good example for other jurisdictions,” he said.

To attempt to get people of low income into decent housing “is tough,” he acknowledged. “It’s politically controversial. But there are thousands of homeless people and the issue is not going away.”

Grabill envisions communities getting past the practice of concentrating low-income people in certain, not very desirable areas. “We’d like to see some multi-family housing up in Fountaingrove and Skyhawk and some ?of those places,” he said.

As he approaches his mid-70s, Grabill does consider retiring - “The thought crosses my mind abut 20 times a day,” he said.

“But it’s hard when you feel strongly about something, as I do, to just turn in your Bar card.”