Category Archives: Latest News

Brush Strokes for Equality!

The Housing Center is collaborating with Building Bridges’ youth arts and job training program to create a permanent, public mural which celebrates diversity and recognizes the importance of equal access to housing opportunities. The mural will be installed on the western wall of 3907 Prospect Avenue, easily visible to car and pedestrian traffic. The public dedication ceremony will take place on April 29, 2014 and will be followed by a community conversation and reception with the mural artists and local fair housing advocates at the Housing Center’s annual Fair Housing Celebration at Trinity Commons.

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Tax Time Help, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Blog

The Housing Center recognizes that fair housing cannot be accomplished without fair lending. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans, including mortgage products. Discrimination in lending is prohibited under the Fair Housing Act. As the CFPB website states, “An informed consumer is the best line of defense against abusive practices.” The CFPB website is a great way to learn before you make major financial decisions, and with tax time upon us, many are on the verge of making major purchases with their anticipated refund. The CFPB now has an additional resource for income tax filing help. Find free, local tax prep & filing resources at the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Blog.

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Did You Know?

Did you know that housing providers cannot impose breed, size, or weight restrictions on service animals under the Fair Housing Act? Service animals are not considered pets, and therefore a person with a disability may make a reasonable accommodation request to allow a service animal (also called therapy, assistance, or companion animal). The request can […]

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The Speakers’ Bureau Wants You!

Interested in helping us spread the word about fair housing rights? The Housing Center has opportunities for individuals to speak at a variety of events on behalf of the Housing Center as a member of its Speakers’ Bureau.  Potential volunteers must attend a Speakers’ Bureau training and would participate on an as-needed basis. Volunteer participation […]

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Housing Center Evolves to Meet New Needs

The Housing Center welcomed new staff and enhanced services in response to the increased demand for fair housing services over the last year. In 2013, the Housing Center conducted over 400 audits for housing discrimination; hosted 52 fair housing training sessions (attended by 1,434 people); tabled 23 community outreach events; and released six research reports.

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New Manual for a New Year! Fair Housing: Know Your Rights!

Many people resolve to find the home of their dreams in the New Year. The Housing Center is very pleased to announce a free new consumer manual Fair Housing: Know Your Rights! to help people in their search. This consumer manual is made possible by a generous grant from the Cleveland Foundation and was written […]

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Zimmerman Case Shows Fair Housing is Still the Issue

The civil rights struggle today is just as important as it was 58 years ago, when a 14-year-old African-American boy, Emmett Till, was brutally murdered for whistling at a white woman in the south. Till was from Chicago and bragged to his cousins, whom he was visiting in Mississippi, about the white girlfriend he had back home.  He asked a 21-year-old white female store clerk out on a date and whistled at her on a dare. Shortly thereafter, he was abducted from his uncle’s house, beaten, shot in the head and found in the Tallahatchie River with a cotton-gin fan tied around his neck. The all-white jury found the murderers, including the store clerk’s husband, not guilty.  One of the accused murderers was quoted as saying, “Well, what else could we do?…I like n—–s—in their place…They ain’t gonna go to school with my kids…and I just made up my mind.  ‘Chicago boy,’ I said, ‘I’m tired of ‘em sending your kind down here to stir up trouble…I’m going to make an example of you—just so everybody can know how me and my folks stand.’”

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Thank You Rock the Block 5K Volunteers & Participants!

You Rocked the Block! Thank you to everyone who joined in the 2^nd Annual Rock the Block at Edgewater Park on Saturday. It was a beautiful day to celebrate inclusive communities and to support the Housing Research & Advocacy Center’s work to end housing discrimination. The Housing Center wishes to thank everyone who contributed to and participated in this event.

With your help the Housing Center will be able to advocate for more of the 30,000 people who experience housing discrimination in Northeast Ohio every year and to expand our work to prevent discrimination through research and education. Thank you to each and every one of you! We cannot achieve housing choice for all without your support and participation.

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Housing Center assists HUD in national study, represents Cleveland metro

The Housing Research & Advocacy Center is pleased to announce our role in a national research study on housing discrimination, conducted by the Urban Institute commissioned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In a report titled, “Housing Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic Minorities 2012,” the Urban Institute found that subtle discrimination […]

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Housing Center celebrates 30th Anniversary at City Club of Cleveland

The Housing Center hosted its 30^th Anniversary Celebration & Fair Housing Art Exhibition at The City Club of Cleveland. The event honored Reverend Hilton Smith, Senior Vice President and Director of National Community Affairs for Turner Construction Company, and recently elected President of the Cleveland Branch of the NAACP.  Smith was among the first in the construction industry to proactively promote opportunities for minority and women-owned businesses.

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Report finds continued discrimination in housing market

The Housing Center recently released two research reports with findings that the region continues to see historic highs in housing discrimination complaints filed. The State of Fair Housing in Northeast Ohio: April 2013 found a 32% increase in the number of complaints filed in the last 5 years (2008-2012) compared with the previous time period (2003-2007). The Housing Center estimates that there are at least 33,690 instances of housing discrimination annually in the region against African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the rental and sales markets, meaning that the vast majority of cases are never reported to a government agency.

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Fair Housing by the Numbers – Segregation

Can you find your zip code on the maps below? How segregated is your community? Over the last 20 years, the Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria Metropolitan Statistical Area remained one of the most segregated in the country. According to the Population Studies Center/University of Michigan, as of 2010 this area is the 5th most segregated in the nation. Only Milwaukee-Waukesha, New York, Chicago and Detroit surpass us. There have been some improvements in integration by national origin, but not enough. In 2010, our area was the 20th most segregated by national origin in the country.

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