Fair Housing Center for Rights & Research
2728 Euclid Avenue, Suite 200 Cleveland, OH 44115
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 1, 2023
Contact: Austin Cummings, Phone: 216-306-2542, Email: acummings@thehousingcenter.org
Cleveland, Ohio – This report is the Fair Housing Center’s seventeenth annual comprehensive examination of fair housing trends for Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, and Medina Counties. The report finds that 55 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, segregation, the historic and continued impact of redlining, and persistent forms of racialized wealth inequality continue to contribute to financial, health, educational, and other socio-economic disparities that exist between people of color and whites and between wealthy and moderate-low-income individuals. The COVID-19 pandemic and financial, economic, and health impacts of the pandemic have only exacerbated these inequalities.
One hundred seventeen fair housing complaints were filed with HUD in 2022 from the six-county region, a 13.59% increase over the number filed in 2021. Approximately 84% of the complaints alleged discrimination occurring within Cuyahoga County. The most common bases of discrimination in 2022 were disability (41.03%), race (21.37%), and complaints alleging retaliation (13.68%). From 2021 to 2022, there was an increase in the number complaints based on race, color, national origin, sex, familial status, and retaliation.
From 2018 to 2022 complaints of housing discrimination reported to The Fair Housing Center increased 261%. In other words, the Fair Housing Center received 2.6 times more housing discrimination complaints in 2022 than it did in 2018. The Fair Housing Center received a total of 1,571 complaints between 2018 and 2022, an average of 314 complaints each year. The most common bases of discrimination alleged in complaints reported to The Fair Housing Center from 2018 to 2022 were disability (63.21%), race (21.20%), and sex (11.14 %).
A review of fair housing ordinances throughout the six counties found no updates within the past year. A number of municipalities and townships have ordinances and zoning codes that impede fair housing by restricting group home and residential facilities. Throughout Northeast Ohio, there are insufficient tenant protections, impacting those rent with a housing voucher, have been incarcerated, or have been evicted.
This report was funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The findings of this work are dedicated to the public. The author and publisher are solely responsible for the accuracy of the statements and interpretations contained in this publication. Such interpretations do not necessarily reflect the view of the Federal Government.
The Fair Housing Center is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and expand fair housing rights, eliminate housing discrimination, and promote integrated communities.
The report is available for free download on The Fair Housing Center’s website at: https://www.thehousingcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/The-State-of-Fair-Housing-in-Northeast-Ohio-2023.pdf