DAYTON — The Miami Valley Fair Housing Center is acknowledging racial injustice in America and its support toward the Black Lives Matter movement, after multiple demonstrations that have occurred across the Miami Valley.
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“Unfortunately, the Miami Valley has a long and difficult history with segregation, all the way back to the 1930s when the maps were created -- redlining origins,” said Jim McCarthy, Miami Valley Fair Housing CEO.
To help cease racial biases such as redlining, The Fair Housing Act was put in place in 1968. It would focus on protecting people from discrimination when they were renting or buying a home, trying to secure a mortgage or seeking housing assistance.
McCarthy, told News Center 7’s Ronnell Hunt even with his group fighting discrimination and more than 50 years after the federal Fair Housing Act, his friend’s story helps him understand how the struggle continues.
“He was talking with a colleague and was saying how happy he was with the financing he got and his white colleagues said, ‘Oh yeah, we got like three percent and it was terrific’ and he was dumbfounded because the interest rate he had received was over seven percent,” McCarthy said.
That’s why he said he feels it’s vital his organization offers services such as documenting and investigating negative experiences and filing federal or state complaints. It is the protection of housing rights -- the group made clear when they posted their support for the Black Lives Matter movement on Monday.
Referring to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sean Reed, and Tony McDade they wrote, "Residential segregation is the bedrock of the inequalities we see."
“Our agency is here to hold the hands of the individuals who encounter those things and walk them through the process so they know what to expect and ensure they’ve done everything they can to try to protect those individual rights,” McCarthy said.
“When we were observing what was going on on the news we have to take a position on this," he said. “We have to come out.”