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Q. In your opinion, what does "Fair Housing" mean?
Anita Lopez: That every individual, regardless of their background, gets to enjoy their dwelling, their home, and being king or queen of their castle. To have the right to live anywhere and be offered the same services.
Pete Gerken: Where fair housing becomes fair housing is when people have equal chances to access the same housing opportunities as everybody else, and there is certainly a class divide within this issue. It means establishing equity for people who don't have it so housing can become fair.
Lisa Sobecki: Fair housing to me means that every resident in Lucas County has an equal opportunity to seek housing where they choose, and they aren't discriminated against based on who they are.
Q. Housing discrimination is still widespread, and complaints of housing discrimination across the nation and locally have increased in recent years. What can Lucas County do to help with the enforcement of fair housing laws and reduce housing discrimination?
Anita Lopez: First, we must fund the correct organizations. Second, a great thing would be partnering with the state of fair housing in the community and showing people the number of cases we are seeing, the most atrocious cases we see, and the most simplistic that people may not recognize as discrimination.
Pete Gerken: Enforcement is about supporting the people and making them aware that they have those powers, and we need to identify those groups, such as the City of Toledo Code, inspectors, and the health department. I think we have to set an example that we are in the room, bring resources, money, and reputation, and use that platform to hold people accountable.
Lisa Sobecki: First, I think we all understand a lot of work needs to be done. When we look at COVID-19 and look through there, everyone came together to really tackle major issues. We must keep that momentum going and continue working together toward our common goals.
Q. What do you think are the biggest barriers to fair housing choice in Lucas County today?
Anita Lopez: I think, unfortunately, the historical decisions that had been made and the steering practices have kept us as a very segregated community. I don't think we have done enough to peel back all of the harm that happened when there were restrictions in covenants and deeds of who you could sell property to and that you couldn't own property if you were a member of certain protected classes. We haven't formally pushed those out to try and right those wrongs.
Pete Gerken: We have an extreme lack of housing stock. We are working hard at the county level and partnering with the city to create more housing. We have a housing problem in Lucas County, and so does everywhere else, but I'm just worried that we don't have enough of it here. We need affordable housing, we need public housing that is quality, and we need more market-rate housing. This is something we did invest in with our ARPA funding.
Lisa Sobecki: Bias. There are flaws in our enforcement systems. It's a lingering bias that leads landlords to continue to discriminate in a number of creative ways.
Q. If you could add one protected class at a state or federal level, what would it be?
Anita Lopez: Being a member of a union or organized labor members.
Pete Gerken: Persons in poverty.
Lisa Sobecki: Source-of-Income.
Q. Many people are surprised to hear that the Black homeownership rate is lower today—
and the gap between the white homeownership rate and the Black homeownership rate is wider today—than it was at the time of the passage of the Fair Housing Act. What do you think Lucas County can do to change this trend?
Anita Lopez: I believe it goes back to the fact that we haven't peeled back the layers to really address the housing gap that exists. The county could easily buy down points on a mortgage and use funds to make it available to individuals who may have been victims of housing discrimination so that they can have affordable mortgages.
Pete Gerken: The county needs to put our money into things like financial opportunity centers and give protections for people who want to transition from tenant housing to homeownership. We need to work on the homelessness and eviction crisis in our communities.
Lisa Sobecki: First, we need to continue to crack down on housing discrimination in our community. We also need to be intentional and equitable about how we fund different community sources. We can also help empower minority business owners and ensure equality within the workforce exists.
Q. One of the most common complaints we receive at The Fair Housing Center is from tenants with concerns about housing conditions that are often caused by unresponsive or absentee landlords. What can Lucas County do to further help address these issues?
Anita Lopez: Right now, there are so many hoops that tenants have to jump through, and if we can eliminate those barriers we could start to solve these conditions issues faster. We need to do a better job of educating individuals on how to write complaints to their landlords and how they can file their rent into escrow. We could also use more housing courts. We need more than just one housing court, and we need it to be mobile. That way, the judges can go to these properties that are in disrepair, and the tenants can file all of the necessary paperwork on-site at the mobile court.
Pete Gerken: We need to stand in partnership with the city and the federal government to help with these issues and penalize the local bad actors as well as these out-of-town absentee landlords. Problems only get solved through coalitions. No one agency or one form of government has all the tools. We need the community, organizations, and local, state, and federal government officials to all come to the table to help solve these persistent issues.
Lisa Sobecki: I often hear about out-of-state investors who are not taking care of their properties. We need to make sure that we have easy access to find these landlords so that tenants aren’t living in deplorable conditions while we wait and try to track down an owner across the country who is operating under an LLC.
Q. If you could do one thing to advance the fair housing movement in our community, what would it be?
Anita Lopez: We need to continue to break down the barriers that so many individuals in our community still face. We need to educate potential renters and buyers on their rights and equip them with knowledge of the law.
Pete Gerken: I want people to recognize that the Fair Housing Act has a voice and power. Power seeds nothing without a demand, and the demand has to be credible. I would also like to see landlords calling into The Fair Housing Center for education to understand what their responsibilities are under the law.
Lisa Sobecki: Education and engage the community. Until you need to use fair housing, let's face it, people don't think about it or even know about it. We need to do better as leaders in our community to talk about fair housing, bring light to this issue, and direct people to the correct resources in the community.
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