The Fair Housing Center’s
2025 Annual Report
A new chapter for The Fair Housing Center
We are releasing this 2025 Annual Report much later than in past years. This was because our federal funding remained under threat and it was not until May 2026 that we finally restarted critical grants for civil rights enforcement in our community. All told, The Fair Housing Center weathered the longest gap in its federal funding it has ever endured.
This was a challenging time that all fair housing organizations across the country endured. Even though bipartisan support from Congress approved funding for fair housing enforcement, HUD delayed issuing grants.
Civil rights enforcement comprises a tiny portion of the overall federal budget. But as Americans—living in a nation founded on a demand for civil rights—it represents a sacred value. Years of struggle established the Fair Housing Act, but civil rights laws quickly become meaningless without funding for enforcement.
We waited to prepare this Annual Report because The Fair Housing Center—and the larger fair housing movement—would be a very different now if these grants did not restart.
As we endured this difficult time, we decided to take on a mindset of “every challenge is an opportunity.” We continued to diversity our services and funding without compromising our mission, and we found new supporters.
In other words, we never skipped a beat. On the contrary, we grew even stronger. While tragically some fair housing organizations shut down or scaled back services, I am glad to report that we continued to expand our work.
I must take a moment to thank two very important partners who helped us through this time: the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation and the John Henry Eldred Jr. Foundation. Thanks to their support our community continued to receive expert fair housing services and grew upon our existing programs to meet the changing needs of our community.
Looking back on 2025
The Center continued to see wide variety of calls from our community, with well over 2,000 intakes completed. Some of the important themes from 2025 include:
- A tremendous number of requests for assistance from tenants living in rental properties owned by out-of-state investors.
- Housing conditions issues, such as mold, lead paint, and other issues, continue to comprise a significant portion of the calls we receive.
- We frequently filed discrimination cases with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission or in Court.
- Our Housing Conditions program has now returned more than $200,000.00 back to tenants forced to live in substandard conditions.
- We found several important successes in appeals before the 6th District Court of Appeals, such as a finding that an award of attorney’s fees is mandatory, not discretionary where a landlord wrongfully withholds a security deposit.
- We also have several civil rights cases pending aimed at setting important precedents.
In addition, I became a member of the Board of Directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance. I am proud to support this agency’s work, and Toledo’s own Lisa Rice, as its leader.
Celebrating our 50th Anniversary
Also in 2025, The Fair Housing Center honored its 50th anniversary with a special event. Ms. Lisa Rice and Shanna Smith, two former CEOs, who went on to lead the National Fair Housing Alliance, came back to Toledo. They offered a rapt audience their stories of fair housing investigations, the growth of the Fair Housing Center, and the formation of the National Fair Housing Alliance.
Our team uncovered historical files from case and media coverage in past years. These items were kept at the University of Toledo’s library, but we received permission to bring them to our event for a public showing. The Center’s 50th anniversary was also featured in local media outlets including extensive coverage in the Toledo Blade.
Our board leadership and community support grew
We added four new board members in 2025, including several attorneys as our work legal services work has continued to expand. The new members are Mr. Joe Dawson, Ms. Michelle Tussing, Dr. Vincent Riccardi, and Ms. Karin Coble. They have added new energy and ideas to an already dynamic board.
Finally, I would like to thank our board and community, who have led us on through a challenging time to a new chapter. Our board leadership remained steadfast and dedicated to navigating us through any storms: Mr. Thomas Luettke, Chair, Mr. Tony Totty, Vice Chair, Ms. Juanita Greene, Treasurer, and Ms. Candace Buckley, Secretary. The whole board and community showed strong support for the Center’s team. This new chapter is thanks to you.
George Thomas
CEO & General Counsel
The Fair Housing Center
America was Founded on a Demand for Civil Rights
Housing discrimination continues to harm communities and negatively impact individuals. Enforcing the Fair Housing Act is the bedrock of our advocacy, and our Enforcement team works tirelessly to protect your rights.
2025 saw continued successes in the enforcement of fair housing laws. Some of the highlights include:
- Our Housing Conditions and Neighborhood Reinvestment program saw tremendous successes. Through this program, tenants receive free legal assistance, such as brief counsel and advice, rent escrow, and other cases to enforce their basic rights to habitable housing. This program has now recovered more than $200,000.00 in funds back to tenants forced to live in substandard conditions. Many calls come from tenants living in homes purchased by an LLC owned by an investor based somewhere far away, and in many cases, their business model does not include making repairs or investing in the properties they own. This program helps combat this harmful trend in our community.
- Continuing the fight against childhood lead poisoning. In 2025, The Center directly assisted families facing lead poisoning with free legal services to help them find alternate housing or ensure repairs are completed in a lead-safe manner.
- Litigation for change. In 2025, The Center filed suit against the Ohio Civil Rights Commission itself. Normally, The Center files cases with the commission for its investigation and review, but recently it file suit against the Commission after it improperly dismissed a charge alleging housing discrimination. Ohio’s statute creating the Commission requires it to take certain steps with housing discrimination charges including investigation and completion of certain steps in the case. But rather than follow the statute, the Commission chose to “administratively” dismiss a case because it felt that an expert may be needed. The Center filed a mandamus action against the Commission in the 10th Dist. Court of Appeals. The case is still pending.
- Fair Housing enforcement remains the backbone of our work. Even as The Center has expanded into working in related areas, such as providing free legal services in historically redlined and disinvested areas, fair housing investigations and enforcement remain the backbone of our work. Throughout 2025, we filed and settled a variety of cases. Disability remains the most frequent charge, following by race, and then sex and familial status.
REPORT HOUSING DISCRIMINATION HERE.
The Fair Housing Center assists a veteran with disabilities secure stable housing
For nearly four years, Serene and Tom Ellis and their eight children experienced homelessness while struggling to secure stable housing. Financial setbacks, poor credit, Mr. Ellis’ disability, and barriers tied to the size of their family made it difficult to find a landlord willing to rent to them. Mr. Ellis is a decorated Desert Storm veteran. But the family spent years moving between state parks and temporary living situations before finally obtaining housing with assistance from the Veterans Administration.
What initially appeared to be a safe home quickly revealed serious and dangerous conditions. The property suffered from structural instability, corroded pipes, gas leaks, sewer issues, termite damage, and unsafe living conditions that left the family without heat during the winter months. Despite repeated concerns, the landlord failed to make necessary repairs, leaving the Ellis family in an unsafe environment.
The Fair Housing Center stepped in to advocate for the family and investigate their housing concerns. Because Mr. Ellis is a disabled veteran protected under fair housing laws, staff worked to secure a reasonable accommodation that allowed the family to exit the unsafe lease and pursue more suitable housing. The Fair Housing Center also assisted the family in recovering their wrongfully withheld security deposit and helped connect them to safer, affordable housing options.
Through advocacy and legal support, the Ellis family was able to move out of unsafe conditions and begin rebuilding stability after years of housing insecurity.
This case represents only one example of countless similar clients The Center assisted in 2025. The Fair Housing Center is proud to provide resources for families in need of advocacy for stable housing.
Advocacy
As a visible advocate for victims of housing discrimination, The Fair Housing Center challenges systemic causes of bias and gives those affected a more prominent voice in public policy.
Throughout 2024, The Fair Housing Center continued its longstanding expertise in local policy advocacy to further the goals of the Fair Housing Act.
- The Fair Housing Center continued its work to remove barriers to fair housing choice and build a more welcoming community through 2025. One of the most important parts of this work is creating the City of Toledo’s Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (“AI”). Every five years, The Center creates this report for the City to identify and make an action plan to remove barriers to fair housing choice. In 2025, The Center successfully completed the City’s AI study. Much of the work identified in the study is underway with significant updates in the following areas:
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- Reentry– The Center suggested development of programs that allow tenants to take advantage of the new “Certified Qualified for Housing” (CQH) process that confirms that formerly incarcerated persons can be eligible for housing. The Center completed the first known CQH petition in Lucas County.
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- Increase access to homeownership in our community – The Center is proud to partner and support the City of Toledo’s Homeownership Fair that helps educate residents on access to homeownership opportunities.
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- Accessible housing for persons with disabilities – The City recently completed a study on the need for accessible housing, finding that our community needs more than 8,000 accessible units to meet the need.
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- Source of income discrimination – The City of Toledo is developing systems for enforcement and implement enforcement of its local source of income discrimination laws, and partnering closely with The Fair Housing Center in this process. The Center is already conducting testing to uncover and report on source of income discrimination.
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- Zoning and Land Use – The City of Toledo must change its zoning code to better welcome housing for persons with disabilities including group homes, and adopt zoning standards that increase access to fresh healthy foods rather than unhealthy food options that are prevalent in historically redlined areas. In 2025, The Center assisted in the development of a change to local zoning laws that make it much harder for dollar stores that provide unhealthy foods to establish in Toledo. The Center is also working with the City to develop improvements to its zoning code related to restrictions against group homes for persons with disabilities.
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- Homelessness and Affordable Housing – The City of Toledo must prioritize development of new affordable housing opportunities, especially housing with added services for chronically and long-term homeless persons. The City has developed a number of new affordable housing opportunities.
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- Substandard housing conditions – Housing conditions remain one of the most prevalent concerns in our community, and the City should implement programs to improve housing conditions. The Center’s own Housing Conditions program has met this need, and should be expanded further.
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- Public transportation can be critical for housing opportunities – Now that the local transit authority has expanded to a county-wide model, it should study whether its services are reaching persons with disabilities and racial minorities or if these services should be improved, such as through county-wide paratransit.
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- Access to water services – Losing access to water most often means a loss of housing opportunities. Since the City locally controls the terms and conditions for water access, its policies can powerfully impact the community, especially the most vulnerable residents. The City should work to improve access to water services through various policy and practice changes. This includes, importantly, stopping the resale of water by landlords who use exploitive or abusive practice to charge their tenants access to basic water services.
- The Center also again helped with completion of a “Shoot This Not That” program. This youth-centered initiative uses photography, storytelling, and media arts as tools for healing, expression, and advocacy, particularly for young people impacted by gun violence. Through the program, participants document their experiences and reimagine safer, stronger communities. This program also connected these issues with the history of redlining and fair housing to the geography of concentrated poverty and civil rights.
Financials
$0.81 of every dollar is spent DIRECTLY on programs.
Your tax-deductible contributions to The Fair Housing Center help us fight housing discrimination.
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Our impact by the numbers.
2100
Complainants Assisted
133
Investigations Conducted
189
Individuals With Disabilities Assisted
6,795
Persons Directly Impacted by Our Services
100,000+
New Total Funds Recovered for Tenants Facing Substandard Housing Conditions
11,957,700
Advertising & Outreach Impressions
19,714
Educational Materials Distributed
31
Trainings Conducted
584
Individuals Trained
97
Community Partnerships
For the tenth year in a row, The Fair Housing Center, The Arts Commission, Toledo Lucas County Public Library, Toledo City Paper, and Toledo Area Parent partnered to host Ode to the ZIP Code. The annual free poetry competition invites Toledo area residents to submit short poems inspired by their ZIP Codes, where the number of words in each line of the poem is determined by the corresponding digit in their ZIP Code. For our 10th anniversary, we saw more than 600 submissions, a new record.
This year’s winners are listed here.
YOUTH
(Ages 11 and under)
1st Place
THEO DECKER
4 dogs in the distance
3 cars driving by
6 snow falling down on the ground
1 calmness
6 so much in a simple neighborhood
2nd Place
RAE KANIA
4 I once did not
3 know that my
6 neighborhood was weird and weirder then
1 Hillandale
4 why I don’t know
3rd Place
KYLIE STOUT
4 in my living room
3 the magic happens
5 ballet, lyrical, tap, and jazz
6 I love dancing day and night
6 love to be in the spotlight
YOUNG ADULT
(Ages 12 through 17)
1st Place
JORDAN HARRIS
4 I was told to
3 leave my mark
6 wherever I went, so I etched
0 (my salutations to home in the concrete)
7 next to the seed I grew from
2nd Place
SOPHIA PLOEGER
4 Fraying Rust Belt avenues
3 calico swirls of
6 steel flakes, stained glass, mossy brick,
0 (vacancy, yet homeward scents of toasted cinnamon coast from)
4 pothos lined espresso shops.
3rd Place
AKOSUA BRENYA
4 the roars of construction
3 pounding, thudding, collapsing
5 but the trees give you
6 solace within the slithers of silence
0 *
ADULT
(Ages 18 and older)
1st Place
JENNIFER ZUNK
4 Confederate flags, Trump flags
8 neighbors drinking lies, barbecuing democracy, and proclaiming superiority
1 * sighs*
2 don’t ask, don’t tell
8 I miss my Blue city
2nd Place
BARB GAIL
4 Shawn’s, Caper’s, Distillery, Doc’s
3 Neighbors meeting here
6 Friendly faces at all these places
1 Yes!
4 let’s have a beer!
3rd Place
JENAI HICKLIN
4 an area of trees
3 fields, streets, playgrounds
6 out far but yet so close
1 skies
5 I feel safe, I think
2024 DONORS
Thanks to our generous donors, The Fair Housing Center can provide the education, advocacy, and enforcement needed to prevent housing discrimination. Together we are creating inclusive communities of opportunity.
GOLD
$5,000 - $19,999
Key Realty Foundation
Huntington Bank
Jennifer Teschner and Joe Tafelski
SILVER
$1,000 - $5,000
ABLE
CHAMPION OF FAIR HOUSING
$500 - $999
The Anderson’s
Butler Capital
Fifth Third Bank
Genoa Bank
Mrs. Patrica Ellis
Mrs. Jennifer Teschner
Pat Hamilton
Patty O’Tool
Sean Nestor
Signature Bank
Spengler and Nathanson
Student bar Association
FAIR HOUSING ADVOCATE
$100 - $499
Amy Saylor
Alicia Smith
Amy Fidler
Benjamin Woods
Donald Peryman
First Church of God
George Thomas
John Managas
Joesph Dawson
Juanita Greene
Kathy Merritt
Laura Longoria
Leigh Beining
Marcus Goolsby
Mary Thom Williams
Michelle Michalak
Mr. Ernest Walker Jr
Pat Hamilton
Patty Rob
Patty Wise
John Mangas
Fonda Royster
Rob Pasker
Tanya Simmons
Tom Luettke
Toni Moore
Whittington Group Realty
FRIENDS OF FAIR HOUSING
Up to $99
Angela Mingo
Annie Cieslukowski
Audrey Johnson
Beatrice Daniels
Ben Kasch
Betina Layson
Beverly Lyles
Blair Johnson
Camille Gill
Candace Bishop
Carla Thomas
Charita Wimberly
Charletta Slaughter
Cherie sears
Cheryl Slack
Chris Harrison
Chris Stewart
Christina Rod
Christina Rodriguez
Coleena Ali
Cynthia Gaynor
Cynthia Savage
Daisy White
Daniel Deangelis
Daniel DiSalle Jr
Danny Degan
David Bachi
Debbie Riley Jackson
Deborah Porter
Delisa Moore
Deon Davis
Donetta carter
Dylan Hawkins
Elizabeth Emmert
Emily Desmond
Gina Gueli
J Scott Seipel
Jacqueline Banks
Jacqueline Steele
Jay Jindal
Jennifer Collins
Jerry Combs
Keith Degan
Keva Sturdevant
Keyana Harper
Kroger Rewards
Kyle Grefe
Logyn Taylor Thomas
Loreen Banks Kendricks
Lucas County Auditor’s Office
LuCynthia Jones
Mac Driscoll
Marcus Lindsay
Maris Ratushinskya-Saltz
Marlon Robinson
McAullae Baker
Mike Fehlan
Nicole Raab
Pat McLemore
Renee Hawkins
Robin Riley -Casey
Ryan Bunch
Sarah Skow
Sarah Twitchell
Stacey Stubblefield
Stephanie Reed Buckingham
Stephanie Dane
Terry Glazer
Tiffany Jones
Valdy Perez
Vincent curry
Willie Edwards
Yvette Reyes
The Fair Housing Center’s Homes and Dreams 2025 was an amazing success. This annual event awards community members for their work to further the fair housing movement. The 2025 awardees were:
Ms, Julia Lee
Ms. Alicia Smith
Ms. Ashleigh Smith
Mr. Rashad Daoudi
