The Legal Aid Society of Southeast and Central Ohio stands to lose more than $400,000 in federal grant money that the group said will hurt its ability to serve low-income and other clients.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sent out letters on Feb. 27 immediately canceling 78 Fair Housing Initiative Program (FHIP) grants, affecting programs in 33 states according to the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA).
The reasoning given in the letter is that the cuts were directed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The letter also states that HUD canceled the award because it “no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.”
The NFHA joined three other plaintiffs, including Cleveland-based Fair Housing Center for Rights and Research, in filing a class action lawsuit on March 13 to challenge the cuts.
The filing describes the sudden cancellations of the fair housing grants as “arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful.”
Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio (LASCO) is one of the programs that had a FHIP grant cut.
The group is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, but is still a part of the litigation. Legal Aid is a non-profit organization that helps people with low-income, veterans and seniors in non-criminal matters.
LASCO uses $425,000 in funds awarded annually by the grant to help those fighting housing discrimination. The group serves 36 counties in Ohio.
“A lot of those counties, we are the only source of fair housing enforcement that has ever existed in them,” said Melissa Benson, LASCO's senior managing attorney of housing. “We were the first ones providing those services under a HUD grant starting several years ago.”
Benson is also worried about the future of funding for the program, especially for many of the rural counties where they provide services.
“If we do not maintain this funding or we are not able to make this funding up in some other way, a large portion of our service area will not be able to receive those kinds of services,” Benson said. “That's going to negatively affect our neighbors who just want to be able to live comfortably and without discrimination in their homes.”
The fair housing grant makes up 100% of LASCO's funding for the rural counties it serves, and 70% of the funding the group receives in Columbus. LASCO also receives some partial funding from the city of Columbus.
Benson said that since the beginning of the group's contract with HUD in Sept. 2023, LASCO has seen an increase in cases involving housing discrimination. The type of discrimination they deal with most often is disability, however Benson said the agency provides a wide range of aid.
“We see a lot of issues with people who have mental health issues who need a small change to the terms of their lease in order to be able to make a payment on time,” Benson said. “Another example is circumstances where somebody receives a disability check from SSI or Social Security disability, may need an accommodation for a change in the due dates of their rental payment if they get their check later in the month so that they're not getting late fees assessed to them.”
Benson also spoke about cases involving landlords who refused to speak to tenants because the tenants did not speak English, and cases where the tenant was sexually harassed by their landlord.
Benson said that one of the successes that LASCO has been able to see in the past few years is the prevention of evictions. “We see a lot of situations where someone is facing an eviction, often for a disability-related concern, but not necessarily that with a reasonable accommodation or a modification, the issue can be addressed and the tenancy can be preserved in a way that resolves everything for everyone,” Benson said. “The landlord still gets paid. The tenant still is housed.”
