NEWS FROM HOME - Housing Opportunities Made Equal

NEWS FROM HOME
FALL 2012
Elizabeth Brown, Executive Director
Housing Opportunities Made Equal
2400 Reading Rd., Suite 118
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Ph.: (513) 721-4663
FAX (513) 721-1642
www.homecincy.org
Building Stability through Tenant Advocacy
HOME’s Tenant Advocacy program is in its fourth year
helping families resolve landlord-tenant issues. Much
like the Foreclosure Prevention program, the goal of this
United Way funded program is to help families retain stable housing and
help build community stability.
partment or putting their rent into escrow. Some of the
worst conditions problems have been apartment complexes with Hispanic tenants. The Spanish-speaking tenants will call HOME to report very bad conditions, but are
hesitant to file formal complaints with city departments. HOME has requested funding from United
Way to add another Tenant Advocate who would
work out of Catholic Charities’ Su Casa site and
improve the living conditions of Hispanic immigrants in the Cincinnati area.
Sometimes the
problem threatening loss of housing is financial,
Nicole Kelch, the Tenant Advocate, works closely
often related to a
with HOME’s Fair Housing Enforcement staff and
job loss. HOME
with Legal Aid. When she is working to save housdoes not provide
ing, she may involve the fair housing staff to reHOME’s Nicole Kelch, left, assisted Latoya Gould
emergency rental after she received an eviction notice for nonquest a reasonable accommodation for a client with
payment of rent. Nicole helped her resolve a probassistance, but
a disability. Legal Aid refers tenants to HOME’s
lem
with
a
lost
money
order
and
save
her
housing.
the Tenant AdvoTenant Advocate when they receive a notice to
cate stays in touch with agencies and churches that someleave, but no eviction has been filed, in hopes the issue
times have funds and helps direct the family to possible
can be resolved. If an eviction case is filed, the family is
resources. When the problem is a late benefit check or
referred back to Legal Aid for representation in court.
misdirected payment, the Tenant Advocate talks with the
landlord to encourage them to accept the late rent. The
While Kelch educates tenants on their rights, she also
family can avoid an eviction and a costly move while the
talks with them about their responsibilities. She reminds
landlord can avoid the cost of eviction and a vacancy.
them that they must pay their rent regardless of how upset
Sometimes landlords become defensive and tenants bethey are with the landlord and she tells them, “Yes, you
come emotional when worried about losing their home,
can be evicted for the behavior of a guest.”
making communication difficult. A call from a calm third
party may be all that is needed to retain the housing.
Frequent moves by renters are not necessary and cause
many other problems, including low education performHOME receives many calls from tenants about substanance. Teachers tell of such high turnover among lowdard conditions. Frustration when a landlord is not makincome students that learning is constantly disrupted.
ing repairs is a common reason for moving. The Tenant
Long term renters can help stabilize a community. They
Advocate educates the families about other options, such
develop a commitment and pride in the community, much
as working with the Health Department or Building Delike homeowners.
Please Join Us for HOME’s 44th Annual Meeting Friday, Oct. 19 ……...…. Details, Page 3
NEWS FROM HOME
Fall 2012
Accessibility is a Fair Housing Issue
HOME recently made the following statement to Cincinnati City Council concerning the lack of accessibility at CitiRama,
an event co-sponsored by the City and the
Home Builders Association to spotlight
new home construction in the City.
with disabilities if we are lucky enough to
live a long life.
CitiRama highlights the problem of accessible housing. Cincinnati has an older
housing stock and accessibility modifications are expensive. We at least need to
build new housing with minimum accessibility to start with. The homes at CitiRama were built with a significant taxpayer subsidy. We paid for infrastructure,
which is normally the developer’s cost,
each of the homes have about a $50,000
property tax abatement, and the City paid
about $75,000 to market the event.
In 2009 the City conducted an analysis of
impediments to fair housing choice. One
of the major barriers identified in that
report was the lack of accessible housing.
The City has a responsibility to address
this barrier. Yet, again this year, NONE
of the homes at CitiRama had even minimal accessibility features. And the event
itself was not accessible to people using
wheelchairs or walkers.
For several years, HOME and groups
representing people with disabilities have
asked the City and the Builders to make at
least some of the homes visitable.
“Visitable” means a single family home
has a no-step entrance. It is a modern
housing feature that is being used around
the country in recognition that many people who are not disabled themselves have
family or friends who are. Plus the population is aging and all of us will be people
It is a fair housing issue when the City
builds housing and hosts events that exclude a major group of its citizens. Putting up a disclaimer sign at the front entrance, as the Home Builders did, essentially saying “Abled-Bodied Only” is just
as unfair as posting a “Whites Only”
sign.
Housing Planning Program Ends after 6 Successful Years
Six years ago HOME proposed to United
Way a Neighborhood Stability program to
provide professional housing planning
services to the older First Suburbs in
Hamilton County. These small communities were facing neighborhood decline
much like the central city, but were without resources to address or even understand the problem. The program ends this
year after six years of
United Way support.
Two factors led to the
programs success.
One was JoAnna
Mitchell Brown, the
HOME Housing Planner. Ms. Brown was a
JoAnna Brown
Ph.D. candidate in
Planning at the University of Cincinnati at the start of the
program and is now Dr. Brown. She connected with the small community administrators and elected officials and helped
them look at their community’s housing
stock in an objective way, building implementation plans that were realistic based
on the market.
The second key element
to the program’s success was the partnership
with the Hamilton
County Regional Planning Commission. The
County provided an
office for the planner,
professional supervision, and access to the
software and technology used by planners.
Housing Plans
The six jurisdictions
with housing plans
through the assistance
of the HOME Housing
Planner are:
 Elmwood Place
 Golf Manor
 Mt. Healthy
 Woodlawn
 Lockland
 North College Hill.
During the six years of
the program, Brown
worked with one community a year to access the housing stock,
examine demographic trends, and develop
goals for community improvement. She
worked with a local team from each community, but also brought in the resources
of an expert Advisory Board that included
developers, Realtors, and real estate investors.
Some implementation strategies that were
successful for communities in the first
years of the program were picked up by
2
later communities. A Realtors’ Breakfast to familiarize
real estate agents with the
small jurisdictions brought
comments like “I didn’t
realize it was such a cute
village.” An external repairs
matching grant program
provided incentives to
homeowners to improve the
curb appeal of their homes,
which improved the image
of the whole community.
One of the most notable
accomplishments of the
program was the creation of a new housing development in Mt. Healthy. The
planning process identified a block of
blighted property that the City wanted to
demolish. The Housing Planner connected
the City to the housing authority which
was looking for a new site for a senior
development. The match worked and Mt.
Healthy now has beautiful new senior
housing for residents who are ready to
give up their single family homes but
want to stay in the community.
NEWS FROM HOME
Fall 2012
Tickets Available
for Annual Dinner
HOME’s newest board
members attended their
first board
meeting in
September.
From left are:
Ronald
Mazique Jr.,
Julieta Simms
and Michael
Cureton.
The public is invited to join the management, staff, members and trustees of
Housing Opportunities Made Equal for
its annual dinner meeting.
Set for Friday, Oct.
19, at the
Cincinnati
Museum
Center, this
year’s event features Cincinnati Police
Chief James Craig as the keynote
speaker. Craig came to Cincinnati in
August 2011 from Portland, Maine,
where he had been police chief after
retiring from a 28-year career with the
Los Angeles Police Department.
Award recipients this year are attorney
Robert Newman, who has championed
civil rights through his law practice, and
David Singleton, the executive director
for the Ohio Justice and Policy Center.
The evening begins with a cash bar at
6:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 7 p.m.
and the program. Cost is $65 per person.
Reservations are required by Oct. 15.
For details and to register, click the link
on our website: www.homecincy.org.
New HOME Board Members
HOME’s Board of Directors elected new
members in August.
Michael Cureton is Director of Public
Safety and Police Chief at the University
of Cincinnati. Chief Cureton joined the
University after 32 years with the Cincinnati Police Department.
Ronald Mazique, Jr. is Assistant Director of the University of Cincinnati Office
of Judicial Affairs. He is a 2008 graduate of UC’s School of Law.
Jason Riveiro is a marketing and public
relations executive who develops national marketing campaigns directed at
the Hispanic community. He also was influential in bringing
the national League of
United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
convention to Cincinnati in 2011.
Jason Riveiro
Julieta Simms came to
the United States from Panama in 1968.
She has a Masters in Education and is
very active in the community. She has
served on the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission and received the 2012
Woman of the Year Award from LULAC.
Case Notes
U.S. v. Bailey – The U.S. Department of Justice filed this
sexual harassment case against
a Cincinnati landlord based on
a referral from HOME involving several clients. In July,
they settled the case for
$855,000 in compensation for
14 victims and an agreement
that Mr. Bailey never again
manage rentals. Justice is currently investigating another
sexual harassment case referred by HOME against a
Cincinnati property owner.
Three client cases involving
property managers are pending
with the Ohio Civil Rights
Commission, two involving a
HUD-assisted property in Cin-
cinnati and one involving a
market-rate property in Clermont County. In each of these
cases, the owners refused to
believe the female tenants,
even after numerous complaints of sexual harassment
against the site managers.
cause they have children.
HOME tested and confirmed
the owner turns down families
with children. Both clients
filed housing discrimination
complaints with the Ohio Civil
Rights Commission. One family came to HOME after hearing a radio ad; the other saw
our website.
Family Status cases – HOME
works hard to educate the public that refusing to rent to
families with children is a violation of fair housing laws.
Apparently, the education is
working. Two families called
HOME when they applied for
a 2-bedroom apartment separately and were told the owner
would not rent to them be-
Race Discrimination – In
August, HOME Executive
Director Elizabeth Brown and
Client Services Specialist
Teresita Lewis testified at a
hearing before an Administrative Law Judge in the case
involving a “White Only” pool
sign on a Cincinnati rental
3
property. Ms. Lewis testified
about the harm suffered by the
tenant family and Ms. Brown
testified about the harm to the
community. However, most
cases of racial discrimination
are more subtle and involve
landlords ignoring or discouraging Black applicants while
enthusiastically encouraging
White applicants. Usually the
applicants are not even aware
they have been treated differently. This summer HOME
filed two race discrimination
cases based on its systemic
testing of the housing market
when testing showed clear
differences in the treatment of
Black and White applicants.
Your United Way Agency Partner
2400 Reading Road, Ste. 118
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Housing Opportunities Made Equal
NEWS FROM HOME
New Personnel
HOME welcomed two new staff members in
recent months.
Brandon Craig is our new Compliance Manager
working to ensure the quality
of our fair housing enforcement program. He earned his
Juris Doctorate from the
University of Cincinnati in
2009 after graduating with a
bachelor’s in economics in
2006.
Patina Nelson works parttime as an assistant in our
Mobility Program to help
voucher holders find housing
in low poverty areas. She is
studying criminal justice/
addictions studies at UC and
expects to receive her bachelor’s degree in December.
She holds an associate’s degree in social work.
Fall 2012
JOIN HANDS. LIVE LOCALLY.
O P E N Y O U R H E A R T.
LIVE PASSIONATELY.
RAISE HOPE. LIVE UNITED.
Create real, lasting change in the building blocks of life:
the education, income and health of our communities.
Give to United Way. Together
we can do more than any one
of us can do on our own.
uwgc.org
This newsletter is funded by a grant from the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
4