News

FHC Launches New Sexual Harassment Awareness Campaign

August 10, 2015 | Categories: About FHC, News | Tags: discrimination, fair housing, Fair Housing Act, fair housing for all, housing discrimination, sex, Sexual Harassment, YAWE

The Fair Housing Center has launched a campaign titled Shine a Light to bring public awareness to the issue of sexual harassment and housing. Sexual harassment – such as unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other unwelcome verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature – is against the law and considered a form of […]

New Fair Housing Rule

July 16, 2015 | Categories: Fair Housing Law, News | Tags: AFFH, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, fair housing, Fair Housing Act, President Obama, White House

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released a final rule regarding the Fair Housing Act’s provisions to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH). The rule includes tools that will make it easier for communities to identify and overcome segregation, concentrated poverty, and other barriers to equal housing opportunity. President Obama spoke about the rule and its importance in his weekly […]

Supreme Court Saves Fair Housing Act

June 29, 2015 | Categories: Fair Housing Law, Media, News | Tags: Disparate Impact, Disparate Impact Claim, Fair Housing Act, SCOTUS, Supreme Court

The Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan has been working for 23 years to open up housing free from discrimination. Our work aims to allow people the ability to live where they choose – not where others deem acceptable. We have settled 82 lawsuits, gained over $1.8 million dollars in settlements for complainants, and successfully negotiated […]

Lansing-Area Case: Discrimination Against Families with Children

May 15, 2015 | Categories: About FHC, News, Press Release | Tags: Children, civil rights, discrimination, east lansing, Fair Housing Act, familial status, Holt, Ingham County, lansing, Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Owosso, Shiawassee County, testing

The Fair Housing Center has filed a lawsuit against the owner/operator of several Lansing-area properties. Check out these links for the full press release and statewide news coverage: FHC Press Release Michigan Radio WNEM Channel 5 WFSB Channel 3 (includes video) According to the lawsuit, testers posing as a single parent with a young child were told that […]

2nd Annual Fair Housing Breakfast A Success

March 4, 2015 | Categories: About FHC | Tags: #fhcbreakfast2015, Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor State Bank, Charles Reinhart Company Realtors, civil rights, event, fair housing, Fair Housing Act, Fair Housing Breakfast, fair housing center of southeastern michigan, Flagstar Bank, fundraiser, Huron Valley Financial, Jason Reece, Kirwan Institute, MB Financial Bank, Mckinley, Michigan Realtors, Michigan State Housing Development Authority, MSHDA, Washtenaw County, Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development, Zingerman’s Community of Businesses

Our guest speaker for this year’s event was Jason Reece from the Kirwan Institute. Mr. Reece’s talk “Place, Housing & Opportunity: Fair Housing for Supporting Thriving Families and Communities” covered housing and health equity, the need for fair housing testing, and high quality housing in high opportunity areas for all. You can view slides from […]

African-American Family Hopes for Justice in Fair Housing Case

January 5, 2015 | Categories: About FHC, Fair Housing Law, Press Release | Tags: Civil Rights Act, color, Fair Housing Act, fair housing center of southeastern michigan, Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, race, Tomkowiak, Ypsilanti Township

The Fair Housing Center has aided in the filing of a race discrimination lawsuit against a property in Ypsilanti Township, MI. The lawsuit alleges that a white tenant attacked a black teenager, yet the black family faced eviction within two days of the incident, while the white family did not receive an eviction notice until after […]

Maternity Leave and Mortgage Discrimination

July 8, 2014 | Categories: Fair Housing Law, News | Tags: Fair Housing Act, familial status, HUD, maternity leave, mortgage, mortgage discrimination, pregnancy, sex, US Department of Housing and Urban Development

In June 2011 we shared with you HUD’s press release on their landmark actions concerning maternity leave and mortgage denials or delays. That press release included the Dr. Elizabeth Budde case, which is considered to be the impetus for the flurry of maternity leave/mortgage settlements now occurring across the nation. According to the HUDdle, Dr. Budde, a Seattle-area oncologist, had been […]

Criminal Background, Arrest and Conviction Record and Fair Housing

June 12, 2014 | Categories: About FHC, Fair Housing Law, Publications | Tags: arrest record, civil rights, conviction record, criminal background, criminal background check, Disparate Impact, ex-offenders, fair housing, Fair Housing Act, fair housing center of southeastern michigan, Harvard Law Review, HUD, John Relman, Michael Allen, Public Housing, race, racial disparity, tenancy selection, U.S. Department of Justice, US Department of Housing and Urban Development

This article was originally published in our Spring 2014 Newsletter. The United States Department of Justice advises that more than 650,000 ex-offenders are released from prison every year1, and social scientists and legal scholars now estimate up to 65,000,000 people are living with a criminal conviction in the U.S.2 A high percentage of those 65 million […]

One to Watch: Seven Days

March 27, 2014 | Categories: Media | Tags: civil rights, Fair Housing Act, Martin Luther King Jr., NFHA, Seven Days

Seven Days from Animal on Vimeo. “In April of 1968, seven days changed fair housing forever.” This short film explores how MLK’s assassination triggered the passing of the Fair Housing Act. Congratulations to the National Fair Housing Alliance for its work with Nationwide Insurance and Animal production for this stunning eight-minute piece commemorating the 45th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. (Vimeo […]

NPR’s This American Life Highlights Fair Housing

December 12, 2013 | Categories: About FHC, Media | Tags: Fair Housing Act, Fair Housing Justice Center, George Romney, House Rules, NPR, ProPublica, tester, testing, This American Life

This American Life recently aired a show titled “House Rules“. The piece focuses on the fair housing act, affirmatively furthering fair housing (including former Republican Governor of Michigan George Romney’s pro-integration role in fair housing), and why and how testing matters. Actual recordings from Fair Housing Justice Center testers are played.