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The Housing Center releases "The State of Fair Housing in Northeast Ohio: April 2006"

There are over 33,000 instances of housing discrimination a year against African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asian and Pacific Islanders in Northeast Ohio, according to a new report issued by the Housing Research & Advocacy Center in Cleveland.

In addition, of the housing discrimination cases filed with federal or state civil rights agencies in the period 2000-2004, the last five years for which complete data is available, 32.4% involved race discrimination, 32.0% alleged discrimination based on disability, and 23.0% alleged discrimination based on familial status. The number of cases filed in this period represent a doubling of the number of cases filed based on disability and familial status discrimination, compared to the previous five-year period.

Federal law prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status and handicap. In addition, Ohio law prohibits discrimination based on ancestry. The Housing Center’s report addresses how these prohibitions are being implemented locally, as well as what types of local laws have been passed to prohibit housing discrimination.

The Housing Center’s report, entitled “The State of Fair Housing in Northeast Ohio,” provides the first comprehensive look at local fair housing ordinances in a six-county region made up of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, and Medina Counties. It found that in this region, 46 localities have fair housing ordinances, including 32 in Cuyahoga County, 2 in Ashtabula County, 3 in Lake County, 7 in Lorain County, and 2 in Medina County. (There are no local fair housing ordinances in Geauga County.)

Some of these local ordinances provide additional protection beyond that provided in state and federal law, prohibiting discrimination against age (16 ordinances), creed (15), marital status (14), sexual orientation (7), ethnic group (2), disabled veteran status (2), and Vietnam veteran status (2).

Among the report’s other findings:

• an average of 111.8 administrative complaints were filed annually with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2000-2004, an increase from the average of 79.6 filed from 1995-1999;

• from 1980 to 2000, segregation slightly decreased for African Americans in the region, while segregation for Hispanics/Latinos remained constant.

Jeffrey D. Dillman, Executive Director of the Housing Center, stated, “This report documents for the first time the extent of housing discrimination in the region and shows how far our region has to go to end this practice. It is time for governments at all levels to make a strong stand against housing discrimination and to commit additional resources to ensure that all individuals have an opportunity to choose their housing free from discrimination.”

The report recommends that local governments enact stronger fair housing laws, implement comprehensive education efforts, and vigorously enforce fair housing laws through systemic testing for discrimination as a means of addressing housing discrimination in the region.

The Housing Research & Advocacy Center is releasing this report to coincide with National Fair Housing Month, which is celebrated in April.

New Leadership for the Housing Center

After a long and dedicated process the Housing Research & Advocacy Center’s Board of Directors announced Jeffrey Dillman, Esq. as the next Executive Director of the Housing Research & Advocacy Center.

Jeff is no stranger to fair housing having worked previously for a fair housing agency and thereafter as a professor at the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law where he teaches civil litigation and immigration law clinics.

Jeff is motivated to build on HRAC’s mission and move forward on implementing our new 3-year strategic plan. He is poised to open new venues of funding for the agency to continue our vital mission and work toward making The Housing Center the premier Fair Housing agency in Northeast Ohio.

Jeff graduated with his BA in 1986 from the University of California, Los Angeles; and his JD in 1989 from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the Associate Legal Counselor for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Washington D.C., a visiting researcher at the Palestine Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem, an adjunct lecturer in law at the University of Michigan Law School, a private attorney practicing civil rights law, and a supervising attorney in the Asylum and Refugee Law project at the University of Michigan Law School as well as a visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Dayton School of law.

Jeff began as our full-time Executive Director on July 1, 2005 and we are excited and motivated to move our agency forward and make it the fore-most fair housing agency in Northeast Ohio. Under Jeff’s leadership we will focus on development as well as continue with our educational programs and increase our visibility in the community as the fair housing expert.

Jeff will hone his development skills and those, coupled with his knowledge of our agency and the state of fair housing in our area, will be the driving force in the changes that you will see, and hopefully be a part of, as our agency grows and continues to change to adapt to changes in our communities