Housing Center Executive Director, Jeffrey Dillman, testifies in favor of Payday Lending Reform before the Financial Institutions, Real Estate, and Securities Committee on September 23, 2009. Read the full testimony here (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/87-Jeffrey-Dillman-s-Testimony-on-Payday-Lending-Reform.html).
The Housing Center filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the K&D Group, Inc., and others involved in the design and construction of the Stonebridge apartments and condominiums. The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, alleges that the defendants violates federal and state accessibility laws in designing and building the massive upscale residential and commercial development, located on the west bank of the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland. In addition to the K&D Group, the lawsuit names Stonebridge Builing & Design, Inc., Stonebridge Waterfront, Inc., and Berardi + Partners, Inc., the architects for the project, as defendants. Jeffrey D. Dillman, Executive Director of the Housing Center, stated, “Accessible housing is an essential means of ensuring that people with disabilities are able to fully participate in community life. By failing to design and construct these buildings in compliance with the law, K&D Group and the other defendants have just as effectively excluded people using wheelchairs and other mobility aids as if they had posted a sign saying ‘No Disabled People Allowed.’” Investigations by the Housing Center and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) revealed numerous and substantial violations of the federal Fair Housing Act and the Ohio Revised Code at each of the apartment and condominium buildings constructed or under construction at Stonebridge. Stonebridge is the largest single residential project in Cleveland in 97 years, with more than 2,000 residential units planned. In February, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission found probable cause that the defendants had violated Ohio civil rights laws in building the housing complex based on a complaint filed by the Housing Center. The lawsuit states that the units at Stonebridge have steps, inaccessible bathrooms and kitchens, passageways and doors that are too narrow for wheelchairs, light switches and electrical outlets beyond the reach of wheelchair users, as well as other features that prevent people with mobility impairments from using and accessing the residential units. In addition, Defendants constructed common restrooms and recreational facilities in such a way as to make them inaccessible to wheelchair users. The complaint further states that Defendants have engaged in a continuous pattern and practice of discrimination against people with disabilities in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act and the Ohio Revised Code by designing and constructing multi-family housing in such a manner as to deny people with disabilities full access to and the use of these facilities. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the defendants to modify the buildings to bring them into compliance with federal and state laws and prohibiting future discrimination by the defendants, as well as monetary damages to compensate victims. It also asks the court to order the defendants to stop construction on the building that is not completed until they can show plans to bring it into compliance with the law. The Housing Center is represented in the case by Relman & Dane, a civil rights law firm based in Washington, D.C., with an office in Perrysburg, Ohio, and Cooper & Walinski, an Ohio-based firm with offices in Cleveland and Toledo. Cooper & Walinski Attorney Diane Citrino, one of the Housing Center’s attorneys, stated: “New housing in Cleveland is exciting and needed, but it must welcome all of our residents, including those who are disabled.” According to 2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 202,749 individuals in Cuyahoga County with a disability, including 16,252 between the ages of 5 and 15, 111,947 aged 16-64, and 74,550 aged 65 and over. These numbers are expected to increase as the population ages, as wounded veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, and as medical care allows people with disabilities to live longer and fuller lives. Federal law prohibits discrimination in the rental or sale of housing, and in the mortgage lending and homeowners insurance markets, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and handicap. In addition, Ohio law prohibits discrimination based on ancestry and military status. Among other things, federal and state law requires that new multifamily housing developments be designed and constructed with basic accessibility features, including usable doors, kitchens, and bathrooms, reinforced walls for grab bars, and accessible and usable public and common use areas. Access the Press Release (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/84-Housing-Center-Sues-KD-Group-Stonebridge-Apartments-Condos.html) Access the Complaint (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/85-Housing-Center-v-KD-Group-Complaint.html)
African Americans in Medina County are denied mortgage loans more often than whites and, when they obtain loans, are more likely to receive high-cost subprime loans than whites, a new study of mortgage lending reveals. The study also found that Hispanics are also denied mortgage loans more often than whites. Read the full press release: Medina County Community Lending Factbook Press Release: October 2009 (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/89-Medina-County-Community-Lending-Factbook-Press-Release-October-2009.html). Read the full report: Medina County Community Lending Factbook: October 2009 (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/88-Medina-County-Community-Lending-Factbook-October-2009.html).
Complaints of housing discrimination in Northeast Ohio reached their highest level in 19 years in 2008, with 254 filed – more than twice as many as in 2007.
Payday lenders have avoided the 28% rate cap set out in the 2008 legislation by obtaining licenses to make loans under other Ohio Laws. Lenders now operate 1,020 stores statewide. Read the full Press Release (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/65-The-New-Face-of-Payday-Lending-in-Ohio-March-2009.html) Read the full report: The New Face of Payday Lending in Ohio (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/68-The-New-Face-of-Payday-Lending-in-Ohio-March-2009.html)
African Americans and Hispanics Face More Loan Denials and Receive Higher Interest Rates than whites. Cleveland Region Worst in State for Subprime Lending Disparities Read the full Press Release (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/62-Persisting-Racial-Ethnic-Disparities-in-Ohio-Mortgage-Lending-February-2009.html) Read the full report: Persisting Racial & Ethnic Disparities in Ohio Mortgage Lending (https://www.thehousingcenter.org/Files/Download-document/61-Persisting-Racial-Ethnic-Disparities-in-Ohio-Mortgage-Lending-February-2009.html)
Files 53 Complaints Alleging Preferences Based on Familial Status, Race, and Other Grounds
The specter of racial prejudice continues to haunt Lorain County, as a new study by a Cleveland housing research organization shows that blacks and Hispanics are denied mortgages in the county at a higher rate than whites.
The housing and subprime-mortgage crisis stands to cost minority homeowners 40 percent more of their wealth than white homeowners in similar circumstances, an advocacy group says.
Now that the Ohio House has – at long last – taken steps to rein in legalized loan-sharking, state senators should ignore pressure and protests from those who profiteer from the poor and act quickly to endorse payday-lending restrictions. House Bill 545, passed by a bipartisan 68-26 vote, would cap annual interest on payday loans at 28 percent. Currently, interest and fees can run as high as an annual rate of 391 percent. The legislation also would establish a minimum 31-day loan period, limit customers to four loans in 12 months, and prohibit loan-initiation fees.
Two thousand and eight marks the 40th Anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act. This significant legislation signed forty years ago on April 11, 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson signaled a federal commitment to ending housing discrimination and segregation. While fair housing legislation had been debated in Congress for a number of years, it took the assassination of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1968, to spur Congress to finally pass a bill outlawing housing discrimination based on race and a number of other grounds.
African Americans and Hispanics in Ohio were denied mortgage loans more often than whites regardless of income, and those who did receive loans were more likely to obtain loans with high interest rates, according to a new report issued by the Housing Research & Advocacy Center(the “Housing Center”) in Cleveland, Ohio.
