Fair Housing Complaints & Enforcement

The Fair Housing Center receives complaints of housing discrimination. A complaint may be made by any person who believes they have been discriminated against. A complaint also can be made by someone else on that person’s behalf. Additionally, the Center accepts anonymous reports of suspected discrimination.

Many people are afraid to make a housing discrimination complaint for fear of being retaliated against or evicted. If complaints are not made, housing discrimination will not stop. It is unlawful for any housing provider or individual to retaliate against you because you made a housing discrimination complaint or assisted someone else in making a housing discrimination complaint. If retaliation occurs, you should call or email our office immediately.

The Fair Housing Center also distributes brochures on a variety of fair housing topics. The most common non-English languages in the Center’s service area are Arabic and Spanish. These brochures are available in English, Arabic, and Spanish.

Our brochures include:

• "Your Fair Housing Rights"
• “Fair Housing Guidance for Condominium, Cooperative and Homeowners' Associations"
• "Fair Housing Rights of Persons With Disabilities"
• "Fair Housing Rights of Persons Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing or Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision”
• "Fair Housing Rights of Persons With Disabilities to Reasonable Accommodations for Assistance Animals"
• "Fair Housing for Families With Children"
• “Fair Housing & Occupancy Standards”
• “Fair Housing & Sexual Harassment”
• “Fair Housing & Criminal Records”
• “Source of Income Discrimination”
• “Tenants’ Rights”

Please contact our office if you would like copies of our brochures.

The Fair Housing Center provides a broad range of fair housing training, including compliance and best practices. For upcoming trainings and webinars, please see our Events & Trainings page.

Training can prevent most, if not all, fair housing violations. There is no conflict between fair housing compliance and business objectives. We assist housing providers in establishing and maintaining best practices in sales, rental, and management of residential properties. Our training topics keep participants up to date on the current standards, policy statements and guidance, and recent court decisions including:

• Emotional support animals, environmental illnesses, and hoarding.
• Reasonable accommodations and modifications.
• Addressing the needs of the Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing communities and Veterans.
• Familial status and occupancy limits.
• Use of criminal records, including Detroit’s new “Fair Chance” ordinance.
• Medical marijuana.
• National origin and alienage status.
• Housing provider liability for tenant-on-tenant harassment.
• Affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH) requirements.
• Sexual harassment in housing.
• Coverage of claims based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and transgender status.
• Racial, ethnic, and religious harassment and hostile living environment.
• Permissible and impermissible housing provider inquiries.
• Housing for older persons.
• Limited English proficiency.
• Disparate impact theory of liability.
• Fair Housing Act’s (FHA) design and construction requirements.

Each year, the Center trains housing providers, management companies, real estate agents and brokers, private, municipal and legal services attorneys, municipalities, tenants, homeowners, and new homebuyers. Our trainings are offered in person and via Zoom.

On an informal basis, the Center is always available to answer fair housing and general housing-related questions.

Congress enacted the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program to provide annual grants on a formula basis to states, counties, and cities to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment, and by expanding economic opportunities principally for low- and moderate-income persons.

Section 808(e)(5) of the FHA, 42 U.S.C. § 3608(e)(5), requires the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to “administer the programs and activities relating to housing and urban development in a manner affirmatively to further the policies of [the FHA]”. HUD’s statutory mandate to administer its programs in such a way so as to affirmatively further the policies of FHA is commonly referred to as “AFFH”. 

The Center is available to assist states, counties, and cities in satisfying their AFFH requirements. For example, the Center recently aided in Clinton Township in preparing an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice. 

The Fair Housing Center plans an annual bikeathon to bring attention to the importance of fair housing. The bikeathon is held on the last Saturday in April--to commemorate April as Fair Housing Month.

At our first bikeathon, the bikers went to the Birwood Wall where Professor Gerald Van Dusen elaborated on his widely acclaimed book, Detroit's Birwood Wall: Hatred and Healing in the West Eight Mile Community.  The second bikeathons included brief stops at the Dr. Ossian Sweet House, where the bikers heard a brief, inspiring talk by Daniel A. Baxter, and the Gateway to Freedom: International Memorial to the Underground Railroad, where the riders heard from Kimberly Simmons, the Founder/President of the Detroit River Project. (The second bikeathon is discussed on our News & Updates page.) 

This year's bikeathon will be held on Saturday, April 27, 2024. You are welcome to register or sponsor the bikeathon.  Even if you do not bike, you are very welcome to join us!

Fair Housing Advertisements

The Fair Housing Center has also run billboards to alert the public to fair housing.

Placing billboards on major highways enables the Center to reach thousands of residents in our community who cannot be effectively reached through other outreach efforts.