News

Fair Housing Rights for Renters

July 25, 2024 | Categories: Fair Housing Law, Publications, Rental | Tags: Fair Housing Act, Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Michigan’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, renter

As a renter, the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) provides you protection, equal opportunity, and the right to discrimination-free housing on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, familial status, sex, and disability. In Michigan, the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) gives you additional housing protections for age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity […]

Thank you #FHBreakfast Supporters!

November 7, 2022 | Categories: Fair Housing Breakfast | Tags: Bryan Greene, FHBreakfast

Thank you to everyone who donated, sponsored, volunteered, and attended the 9th Annual Fair Housing Breakfast. Thanks to your generosity, we raised over $38,000 to stop illegal housing discrimination and promote accessible, integrated Michigan communities! We found Bryan’s talk to be both inspiring and invigorating in the work for equal housing opportunities. We hope you feel encouraged to lean even further […]

FHC Receives Funding from United Way

June 20, 2022 | Categories: About the FHC | Tags: Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, liveunited, United Way, United Way of Washtenaw County

6/14/2022 We are very pleased to announce we have received funding from the United Way of Washtenaw County’s Community Impact Fund. We were awarded a multi-year, general operating support grant in the amount of $37,500.00 annually. The grant period for this grant is three years- July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2025. Thank you, United Way of […]

Fulfilling the promises of the Fair Housing Act

April 29, 2022 | Categories: About the FHC | Tags: age, disability, Disability Rights, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, fair housing donate, fair housing month, familial status, give, marital status, membership, national origin, race, religion, results, sex, Sexual Harassment, sexual orientation

A note from our Associate Director, 4/29/2022 You may know that April is National Fair Housing Month, when advocates across the country celebrate the passage of the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968. We’re reminded each April of the hard work and sacrifices made before us that allow us to continue the fight toward ending […]

Fair Housing Center Resolves First Lawsuit in Shiawassee County – Reasonable Accommodation Granted to Corunna Resident

March 25, 2022 | Categories: About the FHC | Tags: corunna, disability, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, litigation, Reasonable Accommodation, Shiawassee County

We are pleased to announce that a new fair housing disability discrimination lawsuit was settled in the Eastern District of Michigan by FHC Cooperating Attorney Daniel Gwinn. Our complainant accepted a monetary settlement and was given her reserved accessible parking space and sign. This is the first FHC-aided fair housing complaint in Shiawassee County. “Settlement reached after elderly woman […]

REALTORS Show Support for Fair Housing Goals

April 12, 2021 | Categories: About the FHC | Tags: Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors, fair housing, Fair Housing Act, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, fair housing month, Real Estate, Realtor, Realtors

This month the nation celebrates the 52nd anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. This landmark civil rights legislation was the result of years of individual and collective struggle against discrimination in sales, rental, financing and other housing-related transactions. The Act now protects the buyer or renter of a dwelling from discrimination based on race, color, […]

HUD: We Will Now Fully Enforce FHA to Prohibit LGBT Discrimination

February 18, 2021 | Categories: About the FHC | Tags: Fair Housing Act, gender identity, HUD, LGBT, lgbtq, sexual orientation, Transgender

Sexual orientation and gender identity are now officially included in “sex” discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. While our office has been acting under this assumption for decades, we both applaud and are hopeful for what this official declaration means for our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming community members. Jeanine M. Worden, Acting […]

REALTORS® Stand Up Against Housing Discrimination

January 20, 2021 | Categories: About the FHC | Tags: Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors, Chelsea, Dexter, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, Milan, Real Estate, Realtor, Realtors, Washtenaw County, Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township

The Ann Arbor Area Board of REALTORS® (AAABoR) is partnering with the Fair Housing Center to support the 2021 REALTORS® for Fair Housing Campaign. “We are asking local REALTORS® to publicly pledge their support for the letter and the spirit of fair housing law,” said Tom Renkert, Chief Executive Officer, Ann Arbor Area Board of […]

New Section 8 Housing Voucher Protections

January 6, 2021 | Categories: About the FHC | Tags:

The City of Ann Arbor and the City of Ypsilanti have both recently changed their non-discrimination ordinances to specifically include housing vouchers (section 8) in the protected class of source of income. Citizens who feel they have been illegally denied a housing opportunity due to their housing voucher can contact the Fair Housing Center at […]

Criminal Background and Housing Info

January 6, 2021 | Categories: About the FHC | Tags: criminal background, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, fair housing law, housing discrimination, HUD, landlord, latino, race, tenant, tenant rights

“We have a ‘no felony’ policy.” “If you served time in the last 20 years, we won’t take you.” “We don’t even look at an application if you have a criminal record.” “Arrested? You can’t live here.” If you’ve heard any of those statements (or others), call the Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid […]