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Michigan equal opportunity housing laws1/17/2024 ![]() ![]() But that's not a choice landlords have, as family status is protected by law, just like race or sex. The center has handle cases in so-called "student apartments," where a landlord will try to steer a family away. In its early years the center took a lot more complaints about family discrimination - landlords not allowing families to have multiple kids in a room, for instance - but those have trailed off. Housing discrimination takes many forms, but at the local center the dominant forms are discrimination based on physical and mental disability, race, and sexual orientation, Kisch said. All attorneys who handle the center's cases work on a contingency basis, which means that whatever money they do see comes on the back end, after a successful trial or a settlement. If the complainant would like to sue, the center pulls out three names from its extensive legal contacts. Filing a state or federal complaint is another. Doing nothing is always a choice, and some people choose it. The center then speaks to the complainant, who has choices about what to do next. Sometimes she gets a dial tone, sometimes the call is taken seriously, and sometimes an offer so insultingly low will be proffered that leaves little option but to escalate. could we meet and talk about this further?" we've done some testing at your apartment complex and have found evidence of racial discrimination in housing. ![]() There can never be enough testing, Kisch said, but once a critical mass of evidence is amassed, she makes a phone call to the property owner, which goes like this: "It's impossible to say whether you've been discriminated against or if the person is just mean, which isn't illegal. "As a prospective tenant or buyer, you're only going into a property once," Kisch said, especially if treated poorly the first time. Pamela Kisch, executive director of the Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan, said that testers can investigate claims that individuals could never prove on their own. And the center is always looking for more. The center has about 130 testers right now, from all walks of life: Young, old, black, white, able and disabled. Well, more like hobby, really, since no one is making much of a living on the $35 stipend, plus gas mileage, that testers receive per case.Īnd yet testers are indispensable to proving the discrimination that people believe has taken place when they call the Fair Housing Center to lodge a complaint. Testing discrimination complaints might be considered a thankless job. The center has been investigating housing discrimination complaints locally since 1992 and looks into about 140 such complaints a year, running the gamut from racial discrimination to sexual harassment to family status to mental and physical disability discrimination. "WHITE MEN AND WOMEN: Would you like to be paid to help investigate CIVIL RIGHTS violations?"Īnyone who frequents area coffee shops and eateries has probably seen them by now, the neon green fliers entreating the assistance of white men and women, Latinas and Latinos, blacks - anyone, really - in testing local housing discrimination complaints for the Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan. Fair housing issues have changed over the years but problems still persist, Kisch said. Fair Housing Center director Pamela Kisch has been working on fair housing issues for more than two decades. ![]()
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