News

Michigan Fair Housing Centers Address Budget Concerns, Letter to the Editor

June 30, 2025 | Categories: About the FHC, Media, News | Tags: Action Alert, Budget, Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, Fair Housing Center of Southwest Michigan, Fair Housing Center of West Michigan, Fair Housing Initiatives Program, FHIP, HUD, President Trump, US Department of Housing and Urban Development

To The Editor: “Disabled Vet Homeless without Wheelchair Ramp” “Landlord Gets Away with Sexually Harassing Tenants” “Landlord Rents Only to White Families” “Elderly Mother Injured after Apartment Rejects Son’s Request for Grab Bars” Because of the Michigan Fair Housing Centers, these are the headlines you did not see. We get ramps built, put sexual harassers […]

Michigan Adds Source of Income Protections to State Law

April 9, 2025 | Categories: About the FHC, Media, News | Tags: Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, housing choice vouchers, Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Section 8, source of income

Great news for renters’ fair housing rights: as of April 2, 2025, Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) prohibits discrimination in rental housing based on source of income. According to ELCRA, source of income includes benefits or subsidy programs such as housing assistance, Housing Choice Vouchers, public assistance, veterans’ benefits, child support, alimony, Social Security, Supplemental Security […]

WEMU 89.1 Airs Story on Fair Housing

December 18, 2018 | Categories: About FHC, Media, News | Tags: Ann Arbor, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, Jorge Avellan, Pam Kisch, Sarah Tankson, Washtenaw County, WEMU

Listen now. Reporter Jorge Avellan talks with FHC complainant Sarah Tankson about her disability rights case and Director Pam Kisch weighs in on the current state of fair housing in Washtenaw County.

New Federal Fair Housing Complaint Filed Against Ann Arbor Property

April 13, 2017 | Categories: About FHC, Media, News | Tags: Ann Arbor, civil rights, disability, fair housing, Fair Housing Act, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, Ramp, reasonable modification, Steve Tomkowiak

Management delays ramp installation, forces woman to crawl into home. The Fair Housing Center has initiated a fair housing discrimination lawsuit based on disability against Group Five Management Company and TG Properties LLC, the owners of Randolph Court Apartments in Ann Arbor. Read the full press release here. Since age 4, Sarah Tankson has suffered […]

New Media Coverage on FHC Complaint Against Ypsilanti Township Policy

May 31, 2016 | Categories: Media, News, Press Release | Tags: fair housing, Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid Michigan, HUD, Township of Ypsilanti, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ypsilanti Township

The Fair Housing Center filed a complaint with HUD in January, 2016, regarding the Township of Ypsilanti’s ban on Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8). Our position is that the township’s rules disproportionately impact minorities, women, disabled residents and women with children – all groups protected under the Fair Housing Act. “Ypsilanti Township hires new attorney to […]

Supreme Court Saves Fair Housing Act

June 29, 2015 | Categories: Fair Housing Law, Media, News | Tags: Disparate Impact, Disparate Impact Claim, Fair Housing Act, SCOTUS, Supreme Court

The Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan has been working for 23 years to open up housing free from discrimination. Our work aims to allow people the ability to live where they choose – not where others deem acceptable. We have settled 82 lawsuits, gained over $1.8 million dollars in settlements for complainants, and successfully negotiated […]

Racial Dot Map

July 24, 2014 | Categories: Media, News | Tags: census, census data, cooper center, demographics, race

Demographic researchers at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service have used the 2010 Census Block Data to produce an interactive map that plots a dot for every person in

Spring 2014 FHC Newsletter

May 28, 2014 | Categories: About FHC, Media, News | Tags: criminal background, events, fair housing center of southeastern michigan, familial status, newsletter

Click here to read our latest newsletter! Highlights include: photos from of our Fair Housing Breakfast a welcome to new staff an article on the connection between criminal background issues and fair housing updates on recently settled cases If you’d like to receive the print version of this or future newsletters, please send your mailing information to info@fhcmichigan.org.

One to Watch: Seven Days

March 27, 2014 | Categories: Media | Tags: civil rights, Fair Housing Act, Martin Luther King Jr., NFHA, Seven Days

Seven Days from Animal on Vimeo. “In April of 1968, seven days changed fair housing forever.” This short film explores how MLK’s assassination triggered the passing of the Fair Housing Act. Congratulations to the National Fair Housing Alliance for its work with Nationwide Insurance and Animal production for this stunning eight-minute piece commemorating the 45th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. (Vimeo […]

NPR’s This American Life Highlights Fair Housing

December 12, 2013 | Categories: About FHC, Media | Tags: Fair Housing Act, Fair Housing Justice Center, George Romney, House Rules, NPR, ProPublica, tester, testing, This American Life

This American Life recently aired a show titled “House Rules“. The piece focuses on the fair housing act, affirmatively furthering fair housing (including former Republican Governor of Michigan George Romney’s pro-integration role in fair housing), and why and how testing matters. Actual recordings from Fair Housing Justice Center testers are played.