The Civil Rights Litigation Initiative won a victory for Monroe resident Sheila Ashley in a disability discrimination case. Ms. Ashley accepted $5,000 from a Monroe area Real Estate broker, Edward Pipis, to resolve her fair housing complaint. “I am very, very pleased with the way this turned out,” said Ms. Ashley.
Jennifer Anderson told FHC staff that she was denied the right to rent an apartment in the Burns Park neighborhood, near her children’s school, because she had two kids. FHC testing supported her claim of discrimination based on familial status. Ms. Anderson first asked FHC to contact the agent and try to negotiate a settlement before she took further legal action. The agent and owner refused. A familial status complaint was then filed with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. Still unable to come to an agreement with the owner Richard Yarmain or the agent Edward B. McIntosh, Ms. Anderson moved to file in Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan. Filed by law students Diane Kee and David Fegley through the University of Michigan Civil Rights Litigation Initiative Clinic on September 25, 2020, the case was assigned to the Honorable Paul D. Borman. The students were supervised by Clinic Director Michael J. Steinberg. The lawsuit quickly settled for $15,000.
Breakfast Event Celebrates Fair Housing Advancements and Challenges Our keynote speaker was John Reiman, the founder and managing partner of civil rights law firm Reiman Colfax. For more than 30 years, he has represented individual plaintiffs, cities, and civil rights organizations in many of the country’s most important civil rights cases and pioneered groundbreaking fair […]
Fair Housing Center of Southeast & Mid MichiganPO Box 7825, Ann Arbor, MI 48107 (877) 979-FAIR www.fhcmichigan.orgFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEOctober 7, 2020 Media Contacts: Pamela A. Kisch, (734) 636-0860; Michael J. Steinberg, (313) 570-8622 Monroe Woman Resolves Fair Housing Claim The Civil Rights Litigation Initiative, a new legal clinic at the University of Michigan LawSchool, has […]
FHC Files Four Lawsuits Based on Criminal Background and Race The Fair Housing Center has been working on issues related to criminal background and housing for several years now. In our 2014 newsletter we wrote about the nexus between race (particularly Black and Latino) and incarceration rates, and how that translated into housing inequities. Policies […]
Discrimination against Kids A new fair housing case heads to Federal Court Cicily Pippens contacted the Fair Housing Center to report that the agent at a West Eighth Street property, in the City of Monroe, took a rental application out of her hands after the agent learned that Ms. Pippens has two children. The FHC […]
Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan PO Box 7825 Ann Arbor, MI 48107 (877) 979-FAIR www.fhcmichigan.org info@fhcmichigan.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 2, 2009 For more information contact: Pamela A. Kisch, (877) 979-FAIR Fair Housing center expands to 6 counties Thanks to a new federal grant, the Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan (FHC) now provides […]
Thanks to a new federal grant, the Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan (FHC) now provides fair housing enforcement services in Ingham, Jackson, Livingston, Lenawee, Monroe and Washtenaw counties. For victims of illegal housing discrimination, the Fair Housing Center provides undercover testing, investigations, advocacy, advice, education and attorney referral. “The most common discrimination complaints we […]