Ohio Manufactured Homes Association
Tim Williams, Executive Vice President, OMHA
Elizabeth J. Birch, General Counsel, OMHA
April 22, 2015
TESTIMONY – SB 134
Ohio Senate Civil Justice Committee
Thank you Chairman Bacon, Vice Chairman Oelslager and Ranking Member Skindell for the opportunity to testify in support of Senate Bill 134. Since 1947 the Ohio Manufactured Homes Association (OMHA) has represented all segments of the manufactured housing industry including manufactured homes communities (MHC) that provide affordable housing.
OMHA educates our small business owners operating manufactured homes communities (MHC) to be in full and good faith compliance with the civil rights and fair housing laws-- and OMHA provides specific educational programming on fair housing laws.Additionally, when necessary, --OMHA also provides legal assistance to ensure civil rights compliance.
OMHA supports SB 134provisions that -- rather than mandate, permit awarding of actual damages and attorney fees in discrimination cases as well as establishes new civil penalties.
OMHA also strongly supports allowing theOhio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC) to award to small business owner respondents the recovery of legal fees when certain claims are found to be without merit.
Complaints brought before the OCRC are prosecuted by the OCRC/Attorney General’s section at no cost to the complaining partyand funded by state tax dollars.However, a small business owner respondent to a claim must hire an attorney at their own cost whether the claim is legitimate or not.
Thousands of dollars in legal fees can burden a small business housing provider during the investigative process alone not to mention any involvement in the administrative process or litigation.When the OCRC finds “no discrimination”, the MHC small business owner is left withlegal coststhat could take years to recover.
SB 134 permits the OCRC to allow housing providers who may be the victim of a spurious claim to at least recover their legal fees in certain circumstances consistent withfederal law.
While the MHC that follows the law in such circumstances cannot be compensated for the undue stress, the loss of business or resources drained by unfounded claims, ----SB 134 holds out the possibility of some justifiable relief.
Sometimes independently financed housing advocate groups search out complaints perhaps in the hope of justifying their advocacy orattractingcontinued funding ---only to find that some of those complaints end up without merit.
For example, one well-managed and respected MH community has suffered nearly non-stop harassment from people applying as “testers” looking for potential complaints. This coincidentally occurred after a private housing advocacy group lost a complaint against this same manufactured home community.
This type of discriminatory targeting against a community owner that has demonstrated compliance with civil rights laws, -- unfortunately hurts otherwise legitimate housing advocacy efforts.
Such private housing advocate entities are not under the control of the OCRC and face few consequencesfor filing inadvertent or unfounded complaints against housing providers who uphold our civil rights and fair housing laws.
SB 134 provides the option for reasonable and fair relief for small business housing providerswho incur unnecessary attorney fees in unfounded cases. This relief would also mirror the same federal provisions in the employment sector.
Thank you Chairman Bacon and members of the committee for the opportunity to testify in support of SB 134.
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