May 22, 2025 | Categories: About FHC, Media, News
Civil Rights for Victims of Housing Discrimination in Jeopardy
YPSILANTI, MICHIGAN—The Trump 2026 “skinny budget” will terminate all federal funds for nonprofit fair housing enforcement organizations nationwide, including the Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan (FHC).
For over 30 years, grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have supported the FHC’s efforts to successfully investigate and resolve complaints of housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sex, familial status, and other illegal barriers to renting or owning a home.
Nationally, nonprofit fair housing centers like ours handle over 75% of all housing discrimination complaints lodged in this country each year; in Michigan, that number jumps to over 90%. (https://nationalfairhousing.org/resource/2024-fair-housing-trends-report/)
“This will be a big hit to our communities,” said Kristen Cuhran Fuller, Associate Director of the FHC. “Federal HUD funds make up 70% of our operating budget. We’ll inevitably have to cut some services, but we’ll do our best to minimize the impact on victims of housing discrimination.”
The FHC currently has over 400 open investigations, including allegations from:
• People with disabilities who need grab bars, roll-in showers, wheelchair ramps, or accessible parking
• Homeowners of color whose homes and communities are unfairly devalued by appraisers
• Survivors of domestic violence who are illegally evicted because of their abusers’ violent behavior
• People who rely on Social Security Disability income are fined for paying rent late because their benefits arrive after the 1st of each month
• Pregnant women who are denied home loans while on maternity leave because lenders view their future income as “unreliable”
• Families who are evicted after the birth of a child
“This proposed budget has the potential to undo the hard-fought-for civil rights laws passed in the 1960s,” said Cuhran Fuller. “The Fair Housing Act is still the law, but it’s meaningless without enforcement. These funding cuts will devastate equal housing opportunities now and for future generations.”
“Our organization is a community-based, cost-effective, and widely relied-upon resource to enforce this essential law,” said Ann Routt, a Michigan attorney who is President of the FHC of Southeast & Mid Michigan Board of Directors.
It is unclear if the federal government will continue to carry out its obligation, mandated by Congress, to prevent housing discrimination. “What is crystal clear,” said Routt, “is that HUD, facing its own budget cuts, can’t possibly take on an additional 25,000 complaints nationwide that are now handled by Fair Housing Centers like ours.”
The FHC is now calling on community partners, local governments, and private supporters to help fill the gap and ensure that the fight for fair housing continues. Additionally, residents can contact their elected officials and ask that they reject the proposed FHIP budget cuts in the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget. The FHC has some talking points available on their website: https://fhcmichigan.org/blog/
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The Fair Housing Center of Southeast and Mid Michigan, founded in 1992, actively protects the civil rights of those who are discriminated against in the rental, sale, or financing of housing through investigation, education, advocacy, and legal action. The FHC has a 10-county service area with a population of 1.5 million – Clinton, Eaton, Hillsdale, Ingham, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Monroe, Shiawassee, and Washtenaw counties.