Officials from the Toledo Fair Housing Center and Ohio Civil Rights Commission came together to talk about rights and available protections against discrimination yesterday.
Darlene Sweeney-Newbern, the director of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, spoke to students about laws concerning housing and employment.
Employment, housing, public accommodation and credit are some examples of the cases the commission covers. They even cover discrimination against people applying for final resting places.
“People don’t want certain people buried next to them, believe it or not,” Sweeney-Newbern said.
But yesterday, Sweeney-Newbern spoke about housing discrimination.
“Housing discrimination is still alive and well,” Sweeny-Newbern said.
Laws bar landlords from discrimination based on race, disability, color, ancestry, gender or religion. Racial discrimination is most common.
Age is not protected under the Fair Housing Act in Ohio.
“Unfortunately, if you say you’re 24 and they say ‘I don’t want you here,’ they can do that,” Sweeney-Newbern said.
It is unlawful, however, to discriminate against someone based on age for employment purposes.
While most complaints filed are from women and minority groups, sometimes white males are discriminated against as well. Most of those complaints are based on age for employment.
People who feel they have been discriminated against for employment have six months to file a charge. In housing situations, they have one year to file a complaint.
In apartment complexes, the terms and agreements must be the same for everyone. This was the basis of a case last year concerning University students living in an off-campus complex.
Janet Hales, a private attorney, spoke to the group about the details of the case.
Four young black women got an apartment off campus their senior year of college. Their specific apartment was filthy, Hales said, and the managers did not really concern themselves with the girls’ complaints.
The girls did the best they could and eventually had a party. Lots of people came – including some parents – and though there weren’t any kegs, the police came. The girls were charged with a noise violation and were required to pay a $50 fine, Hales said.
There were other parties going on that night in other apartments, but this one wasn’t any louder than the others, Hales said.
One of the girls did not pay the fine after calling the fair housing commission. She was evicted for not paying the fine.
To investigate these cases, the center hires paid testers.
Investigations can include taping conversations with suspects, going to the site of discrimination and interacting with those accused of discrimination, said Katherine Broka, president and CEO of the Fair Housing Center in Toledo
Though testers are paid, Broka said being a tester is about more than just the money. The commission considers its testers to be volunteers so their objective is mostly to right any wrongs they find.
“We all have a right, if we can afford it, to get the house of our dreams,” she said.
But sometimes there is no violation. Not every call results in a probable cause for more investigation.
Every so often, people call and say, “‘Well, I didn’t pay my rent for three months and they kicked me out.'” In that case, there’s nothing they can do, Broka said.
Keith Foster, the director of enforcement and compliance, said it is his job to supervise investigations and review compliance follow-ups.
Luckily, Foster said, companies often improve after a lawsuit and choose to continue working with the center to make sure their company is complying with anti-discrimination laws.
In fact, Broka said, the commission’s most important sponsors are companies who once had a lawsuit filed against them. She cited State Farm Insurance as a company that changed its policies following a lawsuit and now acts as an ally to the commission .
Some cases, however, require continual supervision, Foster said. If the company was the subject of a lawsuit again, having the past records of discrimination makes it much harder for the company to say they were not aware of the laws.
Kim Merik, a junior who attended the event, said it was helpful to “learn about the exact laws. It’s especially more useful when you get older.”
She said it would be beneficial to know about rights in applying for loans, and knowing about situations concerning credit. “It’s definitely knowledge you can take with you,” she said.
Broka said students can protect themselves by knowing their rights and the protections available to them.
Students should also be diligent with their finances and know what their protections are, she said. She also encouraged students to try to keep their ears open for discriminations against others. The main goal is to make sure that if there is a problem, it never happens again.
