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•
1974,
Jaimes v. TMHA dealt with the failure of TMHA to promote the
development of public housing outside the City of Toledo and
with racial segregation of public housing tenants in
existing public housing developments. Litigation resulted in
a court order requiring TMHA to develop an affirmative
action program regarding tenant assignments.
•
1974,
The Toledo Community Housing Resources Board (TCHRB) is
established.
•
1975,
TCHRB establishes the Fair Housing Center.
•
1977,
The first lending redlining lawsuit is successfully
litigated in Toledo by Joe Tafelski in Harrison v. Heinzroth.
•
1978,
FHC and the Greater Toledo Housing Coalition files the
country’s first challenge under the Community Reinvestment
Act with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. The protest,
filed against First Federal Savings and Loan, prompted fair
lending awareness among the banking community and resulted
in a conditioned approval of the lender’s application.
•
1983,
The Center investigates and litigates the nation’s first
sexual harassment housing complaint, Shellhammer v. Lewallen.
The complaint, successfully litigated by C. Thomas McCarter,
clearly established sexual harassment as a violation of the
Fair Housing Act.
•
1987,
The highest award ever granted in a race harassment case was
ordered by then Magistrate Carr, in Rudolph, et al, v.
Taberner, et al. This complaint, again litigated by C.
Thomas McCarter, resulted in a $625,000 award and a stiff
prison sentence for Mr. Taberner.
•
1987,
The standards for establishing a prima facie neighborhood
redlining complaint were decided in Old West End Association
v. Buckeye Federal Savings & Loan. This case was
successfully litigated by Steve Dane.
•
1988,
Fair Housing Center v. Lexington Apartments set a national
precedent by providing free rental units for the homeless.
•
1990,
The federal court in this district set the precedent for
acceptable and unacceptable standards for “significant
services and facilities” for senior citizen housing
complexes in Grey, Wainer, and the Fair Housing Center v.
P.K. Mobile Home Park.
•
1993,
Fair Housing Center, et al. v. Nationwide Insurance
Companies is the first complaint filed against an insurance
company based on testing evidence. The complaint was settled
in 1998.
•
1996,
The Center along with the National Fair Housing Alliance,
settled systemic complaints filed with HUD against the
nation’s largest homeowners insurer, State Farm. This
precedent setting agreement has literally changed the way
homeowners insurance is written throughout the country.
•
1999, Preferred Properties, Inc. v. Indian River Estates and
Duane J. Tillimon:
The Center assisted Preferred Properties, Inc., a non-profit
that develops and manages rental housing for persons with
disabilities, in filing this case in June 1999. In March
2000, a federal jury awarded Preferred Properties a total of
$156,000 ($31,500 in compensatory damages and $125,000 in
punitive damages) and found that a local developer should
have sold land to Preferred Properties to be developed as
housing for persons with disabilities. This was the largest
jury award of punitive damages in a fair housing case in
Northwest Ohio.
•
During the late 1990s and early 2000s,
the Center entered into partnerships with major insurance
companies, including State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide,
Liberty Mutual and Farmers Insurance. Through these
agreements, insurers altered their underwriting guidelines,
which had disparately impacted African American and Latino
neighborhoods. The partnerships have resulted in over $10
million in investments to Toledo’s urban communities.
•
2009,
The Center entered into an agreement with a local suburban
municipality regarding a reasonable accommodation request in
zoning. Along with monetary relief totaling over $100,000
for the named complainants in the case, the agreement also
stipulates that all licensed group homes moving into the
township within the next 99 years will receive a 10-year
property tax abatement.
•
2013,
The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), the Toledo Fair
Housing Center, and twelve additional fair housing
organizations entered into an agreement with Wells Fargo to
resolve a housing discrimination complaint filed with HUD.
This is the first-ever agreement regarding the equal
maintenance and marketing of Real Estate Owned (REO) homes.
The agreement is the result of a federal housing
discrimination complaint filed in April 2012 with the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The
complaint alleged that Wells Fargo’s REO properties in white
areas were much better maintained and marketed by Wells
Fargo than REO properties in African-American and Latino
neighborhoods. Wells Fargo provided $27 million to NFHA and
the fair housing organizations to benefit 19 cities and
promote home ownership, neighborhood stabilization, property
rehabilitation, and development in communities of color.
NFHA and the 13 local non-profit fair housing organizations
will manage the funds and provide a range of grants for
items such as down payment assistance to owner-occupants
seeking to purchase homes in targeted neighborhoods and
renovation efforts for homes that languished in foreclosure,
including creative programs to increase homeownership and
neighborhood stabilization.
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