Housing Justice & Community Economic Development

Survivors escaping domestic violence have many concerns, but they do not need to worry about where their children will go to school or how they will get them there. Federal law protects school stability for children in their situations.

ABLE has partnered with Learn to Earn Dayton to launch Access to Counsel, a program in Northwest Dayton that aims to meet the varied needs of low-income tenants, providing both legal representation and social work, education, and empowerment.

ABLE has joined several advocacy and legal services organizations in filing an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court. The case, Voss v. Quicken Loans, LCC, concerns certification of the matter as a class action and plaintiffs’ standing to recover statutory damages for mortgage servicing misconduct.

Alice Wood’s journey through housing instability showcases her resilience and determination to stand against systemic injustices. Her story, intertwined with the efforts of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) and the Dayton Tenant Union (DTU), highlights the harsh realities of the housing crisis and the power of community support and legal advocacy.

Through a $1 Million HUD grant, ABLE launched the Tenant Eviction Relief Program—a much-needed rural-based program—to assist underserved communities in Allen, Auglaize, Clark, Champaign, Logan, Mercer, and Miami counties. ABLE recently received an extension from HUD to continue this important work for an additional year. Read about our progress so far.

The Tenant Eviction Relief Project & Tenant Information Hotline is ready to take your calls! We work with clients to access tenant rights information, receive rental assistance funds, and support policy advocacy that protects tenants’ housing stability. Contact the Tenant Information Hotline at 1-833-777-0277.

Our collaboration with the Miami Valley Community Action Partnership has allowed us to approach the housing epidemic in a unique way that includes the input and needs of community members in the Dayton region.

A new collaboration between ABLE and the Mental Health & Recovery Services Board of Lucas County (MHRSB) aims to address the multi-faceted needs of people living with mental health issues in northwest Ohio.

"Working for Justice in an Unjust System: Moving Beyond the Legal System", published in Volume 55, Issue 2 of the UIC Law Review, discusses ABLE attorneys Kathleen Kersh and Matthew Currie’s analysis of how the community lawyering model can be used to promote community power to change unjust systems.

After residents of a Toledo neighborhood known as “Junction” learned about banks’ Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) obligations and opportunities to seek reinvestment in their community through an ABLE attorney education session, they wanted to submit comments to the Federal Reserve when the opportunity arose with a recent bank merger.

Thousands of Dayton-area residents lost their homes and other personal belongings as a result of 15 devastating torn Deadly tornadoes ripped through the Dayton-area on the evening of Memorial Day, causing damage that resulted in an emergency declaration.

Children face enough challenges growing up in poverty. Lead poisoning and its devastating effects is unacceptable – it is preventable. ABLE has represented the Toledo Lead Poisoning Prevention Coalition (TLPPC) in the long struggle to prevent lead poisoning in rental housing in Toledo.