Housing Opportunities Made Equal

What Housing Opportunities Made Equal does

Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) is a Cincinnati-based 501(c)(3) fair housing nonprofit founded in 1968, providing free counseling, investigation, enforcement, and education services across the Greater Cincinnati area. Its primary mission is the elimination of unlawful housing discrimination against federally protected classes, with intake data from January 2025 to March 2026 showing 82% of 536 intakes involve disability discrimination, followed by race/color (8%), sex (5%), familial status (3%), national origin (2%), and religion (0.2%). Core services include one-on-one fair housing counseling, paired fair housing testing using trained protected/control testers in accordance with U.S. Supreme Court-recognized testing procedures, filing of administrative complaints with HUD and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, litigation referrals, education and training for landlords and real estate professionals, tenant advocacy with emergency assistance, and a school-based housing stability program at four Price Hill elementary schools.

Operationally, HOME is a service- and advocacy-driven organization rather than a technology company. Its core intellectual property lies in (i) the institutional testing methodology - paired testers using blinded protocols to produce enforceable evidence; (ii) accumulated longitudinal intake and testing data documenting discrimination patterns in Greater Cincinnati; and (iii) a deeply embedded referral network spanning Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, Disability Rights Ohio, Ohio Justice and Policy Center, Community Learning Centers, United Way, and pro-bono counsel. Notable enforcement outcomes include a $25,700 settlement with SNS Management (15 properties, 1,500+ units) requiring policy change and fair housing training. Research outputs (Roadmap to Homeownership, Accommodation Gap, environmental hazards and tax equity reports) anchor policy advocacy.

The business model is grant-funded rather than revenue-generating. All client-facing services are provided free of charge. Confirmed funding sources include the now-terminated HUD Private Enforcement Initiative grant ($425,000/year, ~30% of funding, ended February 2025), the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and Robert & Adele Schiff Family Foundation ($125,000 in December 2024), United Way funded-partner status, and major sponsorships from the City of Cincinnati, Fifth Third Bank, and Mercy Health. Minor settlement-award income (e.g., the $25,700 SNS settlement) is recovered costs rather than programmatic revenue. The organization reports 11-50 employees and operates from a single Cincinnati headquarters. The principal strategic risk is the structural funding gap created by the 2025 HUD grant termination, against which HOME is pursuing replacement funding and program diversification (podcast, school-based channel, research partnerships).

Name

Housing Opportunities Made Equal

Legal name

Housing Opportunities Made Equal

Website

https://homecincy.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1968

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) is a Cincinnati-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1968 that provides free fair housing counseling, paired testing investigations, HUD/OCRC enforcement, tenant advocacy, and education to eliminate housing discrimination against protected classes in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Fair Housing Services

NAICS

Other Community Housing Services (624229)

akta.pro primary industry

Housing Policy, Standards & Fair Housing Enforcement (BPAIANAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Fair Housing, Compliance & Housing Program Oversight (FSALAKAN), Affordable Housing & Community Development (Housing, Community Land Trusts) (BPAGALAC), Public & Affordable Housing Programs (Subsidies, Vouchers, Public Housing) (BPAIANAA)

Keywords

• Fair housing services
• Housing discrimination enforcement
• Tenant advocacy
• Reasonable accommodation assistance
• Fair housing testing

Headquarters

HQ city

Cincinnati

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grants and Foundation Funding: Primary revenue from federal grants (HUD Private Enforcement Initiative), private foundations (Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Robert & Adele Schiff Family Foundation), and United Way funding partnerships. No revenue is generated from clients as services are free.
2. Settlement Awards: Occasional settlement payments from discrimination cases where HOME and clients are awarded compensation for investigation costs and attorney fees, such as the $25,700 settlement from SNS Management.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) is a nonprofit fair housing organization that provides free fair housing counseling, investigation, testing, enforcement, education, and tenant advocacy services to residents and housing providers in the Greater Cincinnati area. Its core work centers on investigating discrimination complaints, conducting paired fair housing testing with trained volunteers, filing complaints with HUD and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, and assisting individuals with disabilities in obtaining reasonable accommodations and modifications under the Fair Housing Act.

Product overview

Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) is a nonprofit fair housing organization that operates as a service-based organization rather than a technology product company. The organization's offerings consist of advocacy and enforcement services centered on eliminating unlawful housing discrimination in the Greater Cincinnati area. Key services include fair housing counseling, investigation and testing services, enforcement through administrative complaints and litigation, education and training programs, tenant advocacy with emergency assistance, school-based housing stability programs, and research publications documenting housing disparities. These services work together to provide comprehensive support from individual counseling through enforcement action.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Fair Housing Counseling Individualized support and guidance to tenants, landlords, real estate agents, and homebuyers experiencing or perpetrating housing discrimination, helping them understand their rights and options under fair housing laws.
• Fair Housing Investigations and Testing Conducts fair housing testing using trained volunteers to investigate housing discrimination and determine how the real estate market treats consumers. Testing involves protected testers and control testers to identify differential treatment based on protected class status.
• Fair Housing Enforcement Files complaints with administrative agencies including HUD and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, or files cases in court when evidence of discrimination is found through investigations.
• Fair Housing Education and Training Provides training programs for both consumers and housing providers on fair housing rights and responsibilities, including fair housing compliance courses for property management companies found in violation of housing laws.
• School-Based Housing Stability A tenant advocacy program providing housing stability services through partnerships with elementary schools (Oyler, Roberts, Carson, and Mt. Airy in Price Hill), connecting families with essential housing stability services and emergency rent or utility assistance to maintain housing stability.
• Tenant Advocacy Serves tenants in the greater Cincinnati area by providing information about tenants' rights and emergency rent or utility assistance to maintain housing stability.
• Reasonable Accommodation and Modification Services Assists people with disabilities in requesting reasonable accommodations (changes to rules, policies, or services) and reasonable modifications (structural changes to housing units) to which they are entitled under the Fair Housing Act.

Quantifiable outcome

• 47% of disability discrimination tests showed evidence supporting allegations of discrimination
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered strategic and minor.

• Legal Aid Society of Southwest OhiostrategicImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 13 February 2024Provided legal representation for HOME clients in the SNS Management disability discrimination settlement case, with attorney John Schrider representing clients.
• Nalls Davis Attorneys at LawstrategicImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 13 February 2024Provided legal representation for HOME clients in the SNS Management disability discrimination settlement case, with attorney Jacob Davis representing clients.
• Green UmbrellastrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerHOME partnered with Green Umbrella, the regional climate collaborative for Southwest-Ohio, to analyze environmental hazards data and their impacts on protected classes for the Environmental Hazards & Protected Classes report.
• erukastrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerHOME and eruka co-released two reports investigating inequities in property tax changes in Hamilton County, combining expertise on fair housing and tax policy.
• Ohio Justice and Policy Center (OJPC)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerHOME collaborated with OJPC to develop factsheets on Fair Housing and Criminal Records, providing educational resources for the community on housing rights for individuals with criminal records.
• Disability Rights Ohio (DRO)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerDRO initially assisted Uneek with her HOA generator modification request before referring her to HOME for fair housing complaint filing support.
• Community Learning Center InstituteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHOME works with Community Learning Centers at Price Hill elementary schools (Oyler, Roberts, Carson, Mt. Airy) to deliver housing stability services to families.
• Learning GroveminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHOME continues partnership with Learning Grove as part of the School-Based Housing Stability program to support educational success through housing stability.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Regional players

• Columbus Fair Housing Center: Ohio-based fair housing organization serving Columbus; same regulatory jurisdiction (OCRC) and mission as HOME, making it a close regional peer for funding competition and benchmarking.

Direct peers

• Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center: Nonprofit fair housing center providing investigation, testing, and litigation support in the New Orleans region; comparable to HOME on full-service nonprofit model and HUD-aligned authority.
• South Suburban Housing Center: Chicago south suburban fair housing center providing investigation, testing, counseling, and training; directly comparable to HOME on service mix and regional mission.
• HOPE Fair Housing Center: Illinois-based fair housing center providing counseling, testing, and enforcement on housing discrimination. Directly comparable because it operates the same PEI-style model — complaint-driven investigation, paired testing, and HUD/IHRC complaint filing.
• Open Communities: Chicago-area fair housing organization providing counseling, investigation, testing, and enforcement; comparable to HOME on full-service fair housing center model in a single regional market.
• Fair Housing Partners of Greater Pittsburgh: Mid-size fair housing organization in Pennsylvania providing testing, investigation, and enforcement services; highly comparable to HOME in scale, mission, and service mix.
• Miami Valley Fair Housing Center: Ohio-based fair housing center serving the Dayton region; comparable as a same-state, same-mission peer providing identical services (investigation, testing, enforcement, education).

Broad incumbents

• National Fair Housing Alliance: The national umbrella organization for fair housing groups; directly comparable to HOME because it coordinates with member fair housing centers (PEI grantees), conducts testing, and files federal complaints — HOME is essentially a chapter-level peer within this network.

Emerging players

• Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights: Legal organization with fair housing enforcement practice (testing, litigation); partially comparable to HOME's enforcement arm though broader in civil rights scope.

Others

• Disability Rights Ohio: Ohio-based disability rights legal organization and explicit HOME partner (DRO refers disability cases to HOME); comparable as an adjacent ecosystem peer serving overlapping disability populations in fair housing matters.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/HOMECincy
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/housing-opportunities-made-equal-of-greater-cincinnati
• Instagraminstagram.com/homecincy
• Xx.com/homecincy

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Housing Opportunities Made Equal