UC grad fights for housing equality in Cincinnati
LaTonya Springs has been around Cincinnati for a long time. A 2015 University of Cincinnati graduate, Springs has spent her time in and around Cincinnati, connecting with the people and learning about their lives and struggles, all with the hope of helping them fight for better conditions in the area.
After starting her education, she was working full-time, which left her in a situation where finishing college didn’t make a lot of sense. However, once UC started a new program called Comeback Bearcat, Springs was able to come back and finish her undergraduate degree in communication, offered through the College of Arts and Sciences.
“I was out of school for a few years, but I came back because someone from the registration department told me that they had a new program that was helping people who had started a degree and needed help to finish the degree,” Springs said.
“I wanted to major in communication. The job that I have now is doing webinars, training a lot of people, speaking, and increasing our awareness in the community,” she says. “I felt that if I came back and got a communication degree, that would help me in my future endeavors.”
While Cincinnati has seen improvement in housing opportunities over the past few years, it still remains a massive program. A report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that the Cincinnati area is nearly 50,000 affordable rental units short of the expected amount of roughly 495,000.
“I was a community liaison for Cincinnati Vice Mayor Alicia Reece," Springs says. "What I've learned was that everywhere I went, housing was one of the number one issues that everybody talked about, and it's gotten even worse now as far as affordable housing needs and the conditions of housing. From there, my passion was wanting to help the community.”
UC communication grad LaTonya Springs, community liaison and assistant director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME). Photo/Provided
That passion led her to HOME, or Housing Opportunities Made Equal. HOME’s mission is to fight against discrimination in housing in the Cincinnati area. Having been around since 1959, they saw the passing of the Fair Housing Act nine years later, which gave them the foundation to set their plan.
“We are a fair housing agency. Our main mission is that we have a belief that people should be able to live wherever they choose. I oversee that whole division, and in that division, we have two investigators who take complaints from people in the community who feel that they've been discriminated against in housing.”
Springs learned early that housing was one of the most significant issues in Cincinnati's minds. However, since joining HOME, she has seen so many cases of housing inequality that she and her team have found ways to find these discrimination issues without people filing reports.
“I am the community liaison for HOME, and I have a great community presence around the area, so I get a lot of calls in regard to housing issues because I have been in this industry for 17 years. Since I've been at HOME, I have filed over about 400 cases, and I've gotten close to 2.2 million dollars for HOME and its clients.
“I oversee a team; we call them super-secret shoppers. They go out and test the market. So sometimes we don't have complaints, but we might hear of certain areas where we need to make sure that everybody is treated the same," she says.
"We do a mediation service where we manage disputes between landlords and residents, so we do training to take complaints about landlord issues, whether its the health department or building inspections department, especially if they feel that you know their housing is not up to code.”
Webinar: Learn more about the Fair Housing Act
If you are interested in learning more about The Fair Housing Act, Springs is holding a webinar to talk about the details of the act and how it affects those in Cincinnati.
“The webinar is going to focus on The Fair Housing Act and what is protected under that because a lot of people always say that they're being discriminated in housing," Springs says.
"I think that a lot of people will benefit from learning what is protected under the Fair Housing Act, as well as the protections that the City of Cincinnati has.”
The 'Understanding Fair Housing Rights and Ohio Landlord-Tenant Laws' webinar will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 25. Those interested should RSVP to ensure they receive the Zoom link before the event. You can register for the webinar here.
Featured image at top: Facades of urban apartment buildings. Credit/Julio Pablo Vazquez for Pixabay.
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