Around the Bend

Before European explorers arrived in current day Idaho, over 8,000 indigenous people inhabited Idaho including the Great Basin Shoshone and Bannock tribes of the Shoshone-Bannock, the Shoshone Paiute and the Plateau tribes of the Coeur d’Alene, Nimiipuu/Nez Perce and Kootenai and indigenous people from what is now known as Mexico. The original Boise Valley People include the Burns Paiute, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Paiute Band, Fort McDermott Paiute, and Shoshone, Shoshone-Paiute, and Shoshone-Bannock. Today, only five tribes are federally recognized in Idaho, they are the Coeur d’Alene, Nimiipuu/Nez Perce, Kootenai, Shoshone-Bannock, and the Shoshone-Paiute.

This episode features IFHC’s Community Education Specialist, Jax Perez, in conversation with local attorneys Zoe Ann Olson and Brian Ertz. Brian Ertz is a public interest attorney practicing in Idaho. Ertz’s passion for housing law originates in his own lived experiences of housing precarity as a young child and during early adulthood. Zoe Ann Olson is the Executive Director of the Intermountain Fair Housing Council, Inc. (IFHC) and has been with IFHC for over nine years now. Ms. Olson has extensive housing law experience including the Fair Housing Act, Idaho State housing law, reasonable accommodations and modifications, public housing cases, wrongful evictions, repairs, security deposits, mobile home park cases, foreclosures, predatory lending, etc. She has been the lead fair housing trainer throughout Idaho from 2012-2021.

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This episode features IFHC’s Community Education Specialist, Jax Perez, in conversation with Laegan Meyers. Laegan is heading into her second year of law school and working as a legal extern with Intermountain Fair Housing Council. As a mother to two young children, she brings a newfound idea to the term "busy." On today's podcast, she shares her story about growing up in a mobile home park in Alaska, the challenges, the stigma, and her hope for a different perspective. 

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This episode features IFHC’s Community Education Specialist, Jax Perez, in conversation with the Executive Director of the Intermountain Fair Housing Council, Zoe Ann Olson. Ms. Zoe Ann Olson has been with IFHC for over nine years now. She has extensive housing law experience including the Fair Housing Act (FHA), Idaho State housing law, reasonable accommodations and modifications, litigation concerning the FHA, public housing cases, wrongful evictions, repairs, security deposits, mobile home park cases, foreclosures, predatory lending, etc. She has been the lead fair housing trainer throughout Idaho from 2012-2021.

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Hosted by Intermountain Fair Housing Council’s Community Education Specialist, Jax Perez, in conversation with the Executive Director of the Idaho State Independent Living Council Mel Leviton. She has been with the SILC since 2015 and has more than 30 years’ experience working with and for people with disabilities in the private, non-profit and public sectors.

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Hosted by Intermountain Fair Housing Council’s Community Education Specialist, Jax Perez, in conversation with Idaho Senator Melissa Wintrow. Sen. Melissa Wintrow is a lifelong activist who is committed to lifting up the voices of every member of her community. She believes everyone deserves the opportunity to be who they are and to pursue opportunities to thrive in a safe and peaceful world. She will got to bat for folks not being treated fairly or with compassion. She places high value on equity, education, and fairness, which shines in her service as legislator. Even as a child, Melissa had no stomach for a bully; she continues to fight against oppressive thinking, practices and systems.

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Hosted by Intermountain Fair Housing Council’s Community Education Specialist, Jax Perez, in conversation with Tony Lee. Tony (he/him) is a Boise community member, recent law school graduate, and renter. Dedicated to building community power, Tony believes that tenants deserve to be represented by an attorney when they are evicted. Tony works toward a world where everyone who wants one has a place that they can call home.

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Hosted by Intermountain Fair Housing Council’s Community Education Specialist, Jax Perez, in conversation with Mel Fillmore. Mel Fillmore is urban mixed Hunkpapa, Lakota of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota. As a seeker of Beloved Community, their work seeks an iterative examination of settler-colonialism, violence against marginalized communities, and data. They envision a future of policy research created within communities, guided by practices rooted in BIPOC-intersectional ancestral wisdom and lived experiences. They are currently a PhD Student of Public Policy and Administration and User Experience Design at Boise State.