Domestic Violence Survivors Face Housing Discrimination

Press Type: Press Release   Associated Program: Domestic Violence

Released: 04/2009

Domestic Violence Survivors Face Housing Discrimination, Study Shows

Cindy thought her troubles were over when she left an abusive relationship. Her abuser regularly broke into her apartment and threatened her, breaking the windows on one occasion. After this incident, her landlord formally evicted her from her apartment. The landlord then told her numerous times that she would need to pay for the cost of replacing the windows or face legal action.

Incidents like this one are all too common. A new study by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) shows that victims of domestic violence are often victimized in more way than one: They suffer abuse and can lose their housing due to actions of their abusers.

Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women and their children. If were serious about ending and preventing homelessness, we must ensure that their housing rights are protected, said Maria Foscarinis, NLCHPs founder and executive director.

About 20% of homeless women report domestic violence or abuse as a reason for their homelessness, and 28% of U.S. cities surveyed in 2008 reported that domestic violence was a primary cause of homelessness. Domestic violence survivors, particularly those with limited resources, often have to choose between living with their abusers and becoming homeless.

Over three years after Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and included provisions protecting victims of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking from being denied access to or being evicted from public or Section 8 housing, NLCHPs study shows that housing providers are still inconsistently enforcing and implementing these protections, leaving victims of domestic violence to also fall victim to homelessness. 

According to the study, each local Public Housing Authority is free to determine how it will comply with the Violence Against Women Act, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) offers insufficient guidance on this issue. In fact, service providers for domestic violence victims are still encountering numerous denial and eviction cases. While these failings have been ongoing for over three years, NLCHP is urging the new HUD Secretary, Shaun Donovan, to make redressing them a priority.

NLCHP launched this study to analyze the prevalence of violations of VAWA housing provisions. The study included extensive review of over 3300 HUD-approved 2007 and 2008 Public Housing Authority plans to determine whether they were in compliance with the law. This study showed that 40.5% of all Public Housing Authority plans, which HUD approved, did not even meet basic requirements for compliance with provisions of the Violence Against Women Act. 

HUD must improve its oversight on the implementation of VAWA housing provisions so that survivors rights are protected and that public housing authorities and Section 8 owners and agents know of their responsibilities under the law, says Cecelia Friedman Levin, Domestic Violence Staff Attorney for the Law Center.

In addition, NLCHP and key partners launched a nationwide survey of service providers to assess their experiences with denials and evictions based on domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. Survey results show that over 300 victims were threatened with eviction or were evicted for reasons directly related to domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. For instance, landlords evicted or threatened to evict victims due to the noice of the violence, calls to the police or physical damage resulting from the violence. 

NLCHP makes several recommendations in this report, such as a comprehensive survey by the federal government on implementation of the VAWA regulations, as well as better oversight by HUD of local compliance with these regulations. It is also critical that service providers collect data by screening clients with housing problems that are related to domestic violence in order to better track the extent of the problem. 

See the report here: http://www.nlchp.org/view_report.cfm?id=301

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