As cities
and towns across the country adopt new “crime-free housing” ordinances, many domestic violence victims
face the choice between calling the police on their abusers or getting evicted,
as the New York Times reported over the weekend. That’s because landlords can
kick out tenants who have a certain number of visits in many communities.
These communities began
passing ordinances 25 years ago that license landlords or even force them to
deal with “disruptive” tenants who get a lot of visits from the police. For
instance, more than 100 municipalities in
Illinoishave adopted these rules, according to a new report from the
Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. One-third of nuisance citations issued to landlords in Milwaukee were generated by domestic
violence.
In June, RH Reality Check’s
Annamarya Scaccia reported the story of Lakisha
Briggs, whose abusive boyfriend showed up at her Norristown, PA
apartment and assaulted her, leaving her with a four-inch wound in her neck.
Briggs refused to call the police for fear of eviction, because she already had
been given three strikes under the town’s ordinance as a result of police calls
– two of which were due to domestic violence. Thankfully a neighbor called and
she was taken to the hospital. Three days later, her landlord was told his
license was rescinded and Briggs would have ten days to vacate. While the
American Civil Liberties Union was able to stop that eviction, the town has
proposed a new adaptation, which Briggs is still fighting.
Briggs’s story is
unfortunately somewhat common thanks to “crime-free” ordinances. Scaccia found 59 other known ordinances throughout the country similar to the one in Norristown. Gwen
Katis, director of the Illinois Domestic Violence Helpline, told the Times that her group gets “several calls a month” from women who have to
choose between calling the police or facing eviction. She got a call recently
from a woman whose boyfriend had choked her but whose landlord told her that if
she called the police one more time, he would evict her.
Victims do have some
protection: According to analysis by legal advocacy
group Legal Momentum, 25 states and DC have laws that in theory
would protect a victim of domestic violence from eviction because she called
the police, although they range from very weak protection, such as in North
Carolina where housing discrimination is prohibited against tenants based on
their status as victims, to much stronger language, such as laws in Minnesota
and Texas that specifically prohibit landlords from interfering with victims’
rights to call the police. The federal Violence Against Women Act also protects
victims who live in federally subsidized housing.
However, many of these laws
also require documentation of domestic violence and/or protection orders.
Counselors for victims point out that the police don’t always perceive abusive
situations and the victims may not always speak up.
Without housing, victims
often have few places to turn to regain their safety.Twenty percent of homeless
women cite
domestic violence as the primary reason. Some may turn to shelters, but many
have faced such severe funding shortages that they have reduced beds,
and the problem is getting worse.
Compounding the problem for
some is that in many states, it is legal to fire a victim of domestic violence
for reasons related to her situation as a victim. Justsix states have laws barring
employment discrimination against
victims. California is also pushing forward such a bill. A bill at the federal level was introduced in March
but does not appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
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