Springfield is a community more vulnerable to discriminatory housing practices, largely due to smaller landlord management, Miami Valley Fair Housing Center (MVFHC) President Jim McCarthy said.
“When it’s mom-and-pop landlords, they may do an excellent job of proactively going to continuing education and keeping themselves abreast of what they need to do, and then they also may not do that,” McCarthy said. “It could be that person who actively managed the investments for the mom-and-pop is now no longer able to do that, and the person who never managed it is stepping in and doesn’t have a clue about what to do.”
These courses are unique in that they will include both renters and landlords, which could be a challenge, McCarthy said. This could extend sessions to allow MVFHC to deescalate tensions if anyone becomes upset after a tenant or landlord makes “broad statements.”
Classes have not yet been scheduled.
Information on family composition, income and more will be collected at the sessions as required by the city and HUD, McCarthy said. He said he has seen people give “bogus information” in the past but that still meets MVFHC’s requirement to seek and collect information.
McCarthy said immigrants may see these forms and leave, missing out on important education.
“If Haitian immigrants see those forms, they’re not going to even come in for the presentation because they’re afraid that we’re collecting information and they’re going to turn it over to ICE,” McCarthy said. “While previously I could say with absolute certainty that HUD and ICE had a firewall and that did not happen, it’s just the opposite now; if they put their real names down and information, HUD is going to voluntarily share that information with ICE.”
MVFHC will also conduct 10 random housing discrimination tests and share that information with the city.
The organization has received tips about the “first generation of Haitians” who arrived to Springfield now “preying on the second and third and fourth generations” by overcrowding and overcharging units, McCarthy said, but it has not found substantiating evidence. Because of this, MVFHC translated its brochures into Haitian Creole and distributed them broadly throughout the city, he said.
This was while the organization had no existing agreement with the city. MVFHC worked with the city from at least 2007 through 2020 until COVID-19 “changed everything,” according to city documents.
Springfield has about 58,000 residents “with incomes and educational levels that fall below the state average,” according to the contract agreement. The poverty rate is about 23% and housing is “mostly old” with “a relatively low value of about $108,000.”
“Much of the rental housing is aging and faces code violations. MVFHC notes that the city’s rental registry, established in 2023, is expected to help address these issues,” the contract reads. “However, the current environment in the city’s rental market remains susceptible to illegal housing discrimination practices.”
Federal funding cuts especially to the CDBG and other housing programs during this second Trump administration have created challenges for organizations like MVFHC, McCarthy said. Now the organization faces the real possibility of “not being paid for work that we’ve done” or have “money tried to be pulled back.”
MVFHC is using operating reserves to keep existing employees and services but that is not sustainable. The organization is one of several involved in ongoing litigation against the federal government regarding termination of funding.
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