June 30, 2025 | Categories: About the FHC, Media, News | Tags: Action Alert, Budget, Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, Fair Housing Center of Southwest Michigan, Fair Housing Center of West Michigan, Fair Housing Initiatives Program, FHIP, HUD, President Trump, US Department of Housing and Urban Development
To The Editor:
“Disabled Vet Homeless without Wheelchair Ramp”
“Landlord Gets Away with Sexually Harassing Tenants”
“Landlord Rents Only to White Families”
“Elderly Mother Injured after Apartment Rejects Son’s Request for Grab Bars”
Because of the Michigan Fair Housing Centers, these are the headlines you did not see. We get ramps built, put sexual harassers out of business, and prevent housing providers from violating your right to rent or own a home.
Unfortunately, this is about to change. Funds to enforce our federal fair housing laws are wiped out in the proposed 2026 budget. Most of the Fair Housing Centers in Michigan will not be able to withstand the loss of federal funding.
If our Centers are forced to close their doors, Michigan will lose over 150 years of experience in fair housing investigations, education, and case resolution. Together, our Centers processed 1,130 fair housing complaints just last year, and we have opened up tens of thousands of housing units from illegal discrimination across our state.
Our fair housing work has been supported by Republicans and Democrats alike, through Congress’ Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP Program). The FHIP Program began as a pilot program in 1988 during the Reagan Administration. It was made permanent in 1992 during the George W. Bush Administration.
Fair Housing Centers uncover illegal discrimination in the Michigan housing market by recruiting and training pairs of home seekers – such as one with a disability and one without a disability or one Black and one white – to ask about housing availability. This enables us to identify those rental and sales agents who follow the law from those who discriminate because they think no one is looking. The U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that testing is a key tool to make sure that equal housing opportunities remain a reality.
Your tax dollars are used to train and educate landlords, property management companies, tenants, and home buyers. Our work protects honest landlords and realtors by preventing frivolous lawsuits; if we investigate and don’t find evidence of violations, we share that information with the client. Our work helps prospective renters and homebuyers find the housing they need and deserve.
The Fair Housing Initiatives Program nationwide costs less than one-thousandth of one percent of the federal budget – less than $3 million here in Michigan. Please contact your federal representatives and urge them to support fair housing enforcement. Otherwise, you will see headlines in the future about unchecked harassment and discrimination, and the loss of desperately needed housing.
The Executive Directors of the Michigan Fair Housing Centers,
Steve Tomkowiak, Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit
Pamela A. Kisch, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan
Nancy Haynes, Fair Housing Center of West Michigan
Bob Ells, Fair Housing Center of Southwest Michigan (interim)