Along with saying queer people shouldn’t move to Chauncey if they don’t like discrimination, council member Joe Jenne argues local tenant protections are “fake” and we should help military veterans instead.
Yet veterans are among these protections’ biggest beneficiaries — and if the protections weren’t real, nobody would be trying to repeal them.
Since 2010, veteran homelessness has been reduced 56%, thanks mainly to the “HUD-VASH” program, which combines clinical services with housing vouchers for low-income veterans.
Vouchers work — but only when landlords accept them. The program’s full potential has been thwarted by source of income discrimination (SOID). That’s when landlords reject tenants because of a lawful income source — usually a voucher. (Think: “No HUD” or “No Section 8” rental ads.)
Ohio goes beyond the Fair Housing Act to also prohibit discrimination based on military status. But neither federal nor state law explicitly prohibits landlords from refusing vouchers and thereby disproportionately discriminating against veterans.
The same is true for most groups fair housing law should protect. Disabled people, single mothers, seniors, and people of color are all overrepresented among voucher recipients and disproportionately harmed by SOID.
SOID is a devastating legal loophole. Even President Trump’s favorite Democrat, Senator John Fetterman, wants to ban SOID nationwide because “Every veteran and every family struggling to keep a roof over their head deserve dignity and our support, not discrimination based upon their service or if they use a voucher.”
Two dozen Ohio communities have banned SOID — including Chauncey, the smallest community yet to take this big stand for fair housing.
But now Chauncey’s new government wants to repeal tenant protections and greenlight SOID.
Consider also that roughly 75% of voucher households are headed by low-income women, whose housing options SOID severely curtails. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, former Athens County landlords Joe Lucas and Kevin Martin spent decades preying on female tenants with few housing options, threatening homelessness to coerce them into sex while operating dozens of properties, including in Chauncey. Greenlighting SOID would put women at greater risk of sexual abuse.
Likewise, repealing Chauncey’s ban on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination would help landlords deny people housing because of whom they love or what pronouns they use.
The harm in repealing these protections is so obvious that we must ask why public officials would want to reduce housing options and pressure tenants into rundown, overpriced housing operated by unscrupulous landlords.
Maybe it’s because many of these public officials are current or aspiring landlords.
Council member Karla Dellinger voted against tenant protections in 2024. She and her husband own two rental homes in Chauncey, one in Glouster, the West Side Church of Christ in Trimble, and two additional parcels there. Her husband owns six parcels in Trimble and jointly owns two rental homes there with his brother, who owns two additional parcels apart from his voting address.
Council member Dylan Skees also voted against tenant protections in 2024. He and his wife own at least one home and several parcels in Chauncey beyond their voting address. Sykes told the Independent his father was a landlord.
Council member Natasha Taylor, who voted to advance the repeal ordinance, owns a second residential property outside The Plains.
Mayor Frank Campbell, who directed council to repeal tenant protections, owns a second home in Chauncey and 18 acres of land.
The Ohio Ethics Commission advises that public officials who vote or deliberate on matters affecting their business interests or those of immediate family or associates commit criminal violations of Ohio Revised Code 102.03. When Athens considered tenant protections in 2023, landlord council member Sarah Grace recused herself, just as Pete Kotses recused himself in 2018 concerning reconstruction of Stimson Avenue, where he owned property.
But when United Athens County Tenants called on Dellinger to recuse herself in 2024, Village Solicitor Jonathan Robe dismissed ethics law as an inconsequential “gray area” and advised Dellinger to ignore the Commission’s guidance.
Robe has been municipal attorney for both Chauncey and Nelsonville, but government work isn’t his only job. His private firm, Robe Law Office, manages rental property in Athens owned by a corporation created by his father and law partner, Scott, who has owned additional rental property. Twice, the city has threatened to criminally prosecute the Robes over their long-running housing safety violations. Thus Robe has a private business interest not only in eliminating tenant protections — but in convincing other public officials not to let ethics law stop them from eliminating tenant protections!
But just because it pays to hurt people doesn’t mean we have to. This week, Chauncey officials will choose whether to use government power to help their vulnerable neighbors or to gain greater advantage over them. They’ll also choose whether to oppose or condone genocide — perhaps the ultimate moral no-brainer. Whatever choices they make should be how their community remembers them — in the next election cycle and beyond.
Damon Krane
Athens, Ohio