Former resident of Four Seasons at Kent alleges fair housing code violations

When Vince Curry’s phone rings, it’s likely someone asking him to solve a problem. He’s executive director of the Akron-based Fair Housing Advocates Association, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating housing discrimination on the basis of constitutionally protected rights.

When former Four Seasons at Kent resident Amanda Killum contacted him in 2022, Curry got to work. She lived at the independent senior housing complex on Horning Road and alleged that she had been subjected to discrimination on the basis of her respiratory disabilities, as well as her finances. She also alleged that she’d suffered retaliation when she objected to her landlord’s response.

The Portager first covered this story in May 2024, when the FHAA, Killum and another Four Seasons resident were watching the charges they’d filed in 2023 with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission slowly wind their way through the administrative process. Now she’s suing her former landlord, the property manager and others connected with Four Seasons.

Back in 2024, the OCRC found probable cause to pursue the FHAA’s and Killum’s identical cases and ordered the matter be scheduled for conciliation. When that failed, the attorney general’s office filed an administrative complaint with the OCRC on their behalf. Meanwhile, Killum packed up what belongings she could and moved to Dayton.

Then, nothing until late last year, when an email The Portager sent to the OCRC seeking a status update garnered this response: “The parties entered a settlement agreement. As a result, the Charging Party withdrew their charge with the Commission. Accordingly, the complaint issued in this matter was dismissed,” OCRC attorney Joseph P. McDonald wrote in a Dec. 22, 2025, email to The Portager.

Curry and Killum say they never agreed to anything and don’t know what the agreement was. That’s because the attorney general’s office represents the OCRC, not the people and entities that filed the original cases, Curry explained.

The OCRC and Four Seasons may have settled, but Curry says Killum and the FHAA are not about to quit. They did withdraw their charges when the administrative process hit a dead end, but only to have Akron attorney Brian Williams pursue the case in court. Should the plaintiffs prevail, Williams’ fees will be covered. If not, FHAA will have to find the money somewhere.

In their Feb. 5 lawsuit filed in Portage County Common Pleas Court, Killum and the FHAA are suing property owner Kent Elderly LP; its sole general partner Kent Elderly Corp; property manager AGPM Ohio LLC; Four Seasons at Kent property manager Tricia Stranman; and the NRP Group, a Cleveland and Florida company that sets policies and practices for Four Seasons at Kent’s management for upwards of $300,000.

NRP Group, AGPM Ohio and Stranman did not respond to The Portager’s multiple phone calls or emails, and attempts to reach property owner Kent Elderly LP proved unsuccessful.

The complaint states that Killum’s issues were rooted in a Dec. 9, 2022, incident when her apartment caught fire due to the “negligent conduct of the maintenance personnel” at Four Seasons.

“This triggered the sprinkler system which flooded her apartment. Because of the incompetence of the maintenance personnel of the defendants, jointly and severally, in not timely shutting the system off, hundreds of gallons of water poured inside Amanda Killum’s apartment,” the complaint states.

Killum’s apartment was “uninhabitable” for five months, the complaint states. Her complaint also alleges that, during the five-month period, the defendants filed a false police report against her, “alleging intimidation.”

Killum told The Portager, and her complaint states, that mold in the walls and carpet affected her respiratory disability, eventually landing her in the hospital. She alleged that Four Seasons did not adequately address the mold issue even while she stayed in a hotel for weeks.

She continues to suffer from shortness of breath and remains under a doctor’s care, the complaint states. Her lawsuit cites two violations of the federal fair housing code; alleges that the defendants’ violation of Ohio law resulted in personal injury and general neglect/breach of contract. She is suing for at least $325,000, her legal fees, court costs and other relief the court may grant.

The lawsuit reiterates affidavits the FHAA and Killum filed in May 2023 with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, which in January 2024 concluded that AGPM Ohio, Stranman and Kent Elderly had violated civil discrimination laws by:

• Denying reasonable accommodation for Killum’s disability when she requested that her rent payments coincide with her receipt of her Social Security check. (The matter was only resolved when Killum sought FHAA’s help.)

• Interfering with scheduled tenant group meetings, including those featuring Curry, who was brought in to educate tenants about fair housing laws.

• Failing to respond in a timely manner when a malfunctioning sprinkler system flooded Killum’s apartment in December 2022.

• Failing to adequately respond to her subsequent request for accommodation for mold abatement, including repairs and mold removal, even though the mold was affecting her breathing.

• Retaliating by failing to provide required notice of entry to Killum’s apartment, further damaging her possessions while moving them, forcing her to stay in an apartment with mold spores, leaving the apartment without hot water or heat for an extended period of time, and harassing her and threatening her with eviction.

Laurie Kamps, the other resident whose complaint The Portager covered in 2024, continues to reside at Four Seasons at Kent, but her complaints against Four Seasons’ management may have hit a dead end.

Kamps’ complaint with the OCRC, again identical to the FHAA’s, is rooted in Stranham’s March 2023 proposal to move the complex’s dog park to what Kamps, who has mobility impairments, described as “a hilly area which is not accessible.”

Kamps’ complaint alleges that she met with Stranham to address her fair housing rights as a tenant with physical disabilities, but when she said the words “fair housing,” Stranham angrily ended the conversation. She alleges that she was then targeted for “made up infractions and lease violations” that included threats of eviction.

Kamps worked with Curry and, like Killum, learned that the OCRC had found probable cause to pursue her case.

The OCRC’s March 21, 2024, letter of determination found that Four Seasons’ management had inflated or manufactured tenant violations Kamps had supposedly incurred, had neglected to repair or replace Kamps’ malfunctioning refrigerator for over a month despite her having twice requested that it be done, had “selectively enforced” its noise and nuisance rules and had accused her of spreading false allegations against AGPM and its employees.

Then, nothing until late last year, when the OCRC killed the case without explanation and without notifying Kamps or the FHAA. The Portager only learned of it in an email request for an update as to the case’s status.

“The formal complaint was dismissed upon advice of the Attorney General, the Commission’s counsel,” OCRC attorney McDonald wrote in the Dec. 22, 2025 email to The Portager.

In a subsequent Dec. 30, 2025, email, McDonald stated that “the reasoning offered by the Attorney General is confidential and privileged,” and added that he is “unable to expand on the matter.”

Which is no explanation at all, Curry said.

“The commission did not have to do what the Attorney General's Office recommended,” he said. “The Civil Rights Commission is the client, and the Attorney General is the attorney. So they did not have to dismiss. They chose to dismiss, and nobody will tell us why.”

Kamps’ case was solid, Curry said, and there was enough direct evidence to show that when she brought up her fair housing rights, the property manager targeted her.

But, since the FHAA’s bank account doesn’t stretch to hiring another private attorney, Kamps’ only option now is to hire her own lawyer and file in court herself. That takes thousands of dollars few elderly people can spare, he said.

“I’m screwed,” Kamps said. “I don’t have any options. I don’t have any money. I live hand to mouth. I have to stay here. I have no choice.”

It’s easy to say the residents should move, but Curry — and other Four Seasons residents The Portager met during the summer of 2025 — point to the nationwide lack of affordable housing. Finding thousands of dollars to cover the first and last month’s rent and security deposit for a new apartment can be impossible, and that’s in addition to the sometimes insurmountable physical, logistical, financial and emotional costs moves entail.

Instead of elderly people and people with disabilities having to move because their rights are being violated, landlords should stop violating people’s rights, Curry said.

Kamps said her rent has increased 50% in four years. Even with PMHA subsidies, her monthly out of pocket has ballooned from $400 to $677: half her Social Security check. Add utilities and car expenses and, at 72 years old, Kamps finds herself having to work 20 hours a week as a cashier. She accepts SNAP benefits and visits Kent’s emergency food pantry as often as allowable.

Meanwhile, both Curry and Kamps say she continues to be targeted. On Oct. 20, 2025, she received a lease violation for having on Oct. 16 and 17 been verbally abusive to the property’s maintenance man. Those alleged incidents were rooted in the complex's community room being locked even though Kamps, a Girl Scout troop leader, had reserved it for use.

She was informed that any further incidents could result “in further disciplinary action, up to and including lease termination.”

Kamps denies the allegations and sent Curry multiple witness statements to prove it. No matter: she knows she’s being scrutinized. She also knows her lease is up in August, and she has to sign the new one in June.

“I can’t do anything, and I don’t get a lease violation or a warning,” she said.

Though Williams feels for Kamps, and believes from the evidence he’d reviewed that she has been targeted, he also feels that taking the case to court could well result in a loss. Quality evidence that a court would need, he said, is just not there.

To Curry, the entire matter is proof that the federal government is not enforcing its own fair housing laws. He says he tries to remain apolitical, but the current climate is challenging.

“This whole thing has taught me that government comes down to the integrity of the leadership. If the leadership decides they're not going to do what they're supposed to do, we're done, and that's where we are right now. We're trying to fight it as best we can,” he said.

Having championed fair housing rights for three decades, Curry said advocates like the FHAA and the people they represent see the writing on the wall. Even so, he’s filing more OCRC complaints, including at least one on behalf of another Four Seasons resident. He said he can only hope the commission hasn’t become a place where good cases go to die.

“If we were bringing bad cases or cases where there was no evidence of discrimination, I would have no problem,” he said. “But it's frustrating. Where do the people turn? Where do people turn when their housing rights are being violated? It’s deplorable that you attack these older people who have no place to go.”