City to host fair housing training Sept. 14

The city of Port Huron is hosting a fair housing training event later this month, and one organizer said she’d like to see local residents who rent in the area attend.

The training will address a shortlist of topics, including reasonable accommodations and modifications for assistance animals, use of criminal records, familial status and occupancy standards, and tenants’ rights and how to avoid becoming a victim, before a question-and-answer session.

In partnership with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit, it’s set for 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 14 in the public meeting room of Port Huron’s Municipal Office Center, 100 McMorran Blvd.

The training is free but does require registration. It will be the first time the city has hosted such a session.

Jazmyn Thomas, the city’s community development program administrator, said one of the requirements for receiving some federal housing dollars includes “doing our part in promoting fair housing.”

Officials have said the number of renters and homeowners in Port Huron approaches a half-and-half ratio. But as of Wednesday, she said none of the nearly 70 individuals registered for Sept. 14 were local tenants despite the prevalence.

“Most of them are either community nonprofits who work with housing, realtors, property managers, (or) lenders,” Thomas said. “… I’d like to see tenants attend, I think, if I could get a word out. We’ve been using social media, advertising it in our building, things like that. But … it’s great to have just the general public there, and it’s free.”

She hoped to make general fair housing training an annual occurrence in addition to a session specific to landlords and tenants next spring.

“What are the legal rights of tenants? What can you do if your landlord doesn’t fix your toilet that’s not working? How can you withhold rent? Et cetera. Those trainings are really useful, too,” Thomas said. “And because we have such a high population of tenants with all the rentals we have, it would also be another training for the community."

Steve Tomkowiak, executive director of the Fair Housing Center, which covers Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties, will lead the session this month.

With a background in real estate law and a bit of mortgage and rental work, he’s done webinars on just tenants’ rights before and said should individual renters attend that “no question goes unanswered.” He, too, hoped more would attend.

“(With) tenants’ rights, you can get housing providers, management companies, municipalities, but reaching individuals is always a challenge,” Tomkowiak said. “And that’s a real concern.”

Both Thomas and Tomkowiak said fair housing issues aren’t always easy to spot, pointing to something like rental discrimination not only being about race.

A fair housing violation, Tomkowiak said, could involve common issues such as age, reasons not to renew a lease, pushing non-renewal month-to-month arrangements over a lease, or rejecting a tenant on the number of occupants per unit.

Overall, he said questions tend to “run the gamut.”

“That’s perfectly fine if there’s a question about having a disability, (for example). People may ask questions about security deposits. Regular landlord-tenant type things. What do I do under this situation or that situation?” Tomkowiak said. “Certainly, people will ask about assistance animals. They may ask about reasonable accommodations and modifications.”

The Sept. 14 training session is being paid for with a grant from MSHDA.

To register, email Thomas at thomasj@porthuron.org or call (810) 984-9736 ext. 1153.

For more on fair housing, visit www.fairhousingdetroit.org.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.  

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Port Huron to host fair housing training Sept. 14