Michigan Owner Settles HUD's VAWA Discrimination Complaint

And agrees to a financial payment and training.

A recent conciliation agreement between HUD and a Michigan housing provider shows that HUD continues to monitor compliance with the Violence Against Women Act.

HUD recently announced that it had entered into a settlement agreement with an owner resolving allegations that the owner denied housing to a woman because of her disability and status as a survivor under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). “We have an ongoing commitment to enforcing rights enshrined under VAWA and the Fair Housing Act, ensuring equal access to housing for all,” Demetria L. McCain, HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, said in a statement.

The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale or rental of housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), familial status, and disability. And under VAWA, individuals living in covered housing programs cannot be denied housing, evicted, or lose assistance due to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. They also have the right to request an emergency transfer for safety reasons related to violence.

Owner Refused to Review VAWA Information

In this case, the owner is a private housing provider that regularly enters into Housing Assistance Payments contracts to provide housing to tenants using Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV). The HCV program is a component of Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 and, as a result, is a covered housing program subject to the Violence Against Women Act.

The applicant filed a complaint with HUD alleging that the owner failed to respond to the woman’s rental application because of her visual impairment and because she said a previous lease had been terminated due to intimate partner violence and stalking. HUD alleges the owner violated VAWA by refusing to review VAWA information and not responding to her application for housing.

What’s in the Conciliation Agreement

Under the terms of the agreement, the owner will pay the survivor $8,500. The owner will also take affirmative steps to ensure its policies, practices, and procedures comply with VAWA and the Fair Housing Act. The agreement further requires that the owner will require all its staff to attend VAWA-related training.

Federal VAWA Housing Protections

HUD’s new enforcement authority under the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2022, which was signed into law on March 15, 2022, enhances housing protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking applying for and assisted under covered HUD housing programs and certain other federal housing and homeless assistance programs. VAWA 2022 authorizes HUD to enforce the law by the same process as the Fair Housing Act.

VAWA housing protections can be divided into two categories. One category is the right to report. This is the right for anyone to seek law enforcement or emergency assistance without being penalized, for example, by their landlord or local law enforcement. This right applies to all people, regardless of whether they are or have been a survivor of VAWA violence/abuse or live in federally subsidized housing.

The second category is housing protections in federally subsidized units. These are rights that VAWA provides to survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking who are applying for or living in shelter or rental housing units subsidized by the federal government. These rights include but are not limited to:

Nondiscrimination. It’s illegal to deny admission to or assistance under, or to evict a resident from or terminate participation in, a covered housing program if a resident or a member of the household is or has been a survivor of VAWA violence or abuse. In addition, it’s illegal to deny tenancy or occupancy rights in a covered housing program solely on the basis of criminal activity directly relating to the VAWA violence/abuse.

Notification of Occupancy Rights. For an applicant or resident, a covered housing provider must provide two HUD-approved documents: (1) Notice of Occupancy Rights under VAWA; and (2) VAWA certification form at specified times.

Emergency transfers. Residents can request an emergency transfer if: (1) the resident expressly requests the transfer; and (2)(a) the resident reasonably believes there is a threat of imminent harm from further violence if the resident remains in the same unit; or (2)(b) in the case of sexual assault, the sexual assault occurred at your housing during the 90 calendar-day period preceding the date of the transfer request.

Confidentiality requirements. Owners have specific obligations to maintain the confidentiality of the fact that a person is a survivor of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Any information a resident provides under VAWA’s housing protections, including the fact that a resident is a VAWA survivor, must be kept confidential. These obligations include keeping any such information out of a shared database and not disclosing such information to others unless the resident consents in writing to such disclosure, it is required for use in an eviction proceeding, or the law otherwise requires it.

Documentation. If a resident informs a public housing agency or owner or manager that the resident is a survivor of VAWA violence/abuse entitled to VAWA protections, the covered housing provider may request, in writing, that the resident submit documentation of the occurrence of the domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The resident has the discretion to choose which documentation to provide from the list identified in HUD’s VAWA rule, unless there’s conflicting information of VAWA violence/abuse.

Lease bifurcation. VAWA protects the resident and other household members when a covered housing provider removes a household member from a lease in order to evict, remove, terminate occupancy rights, or terminate assistance to that person because he or she engages in criminal activity directly relating to VAWA violence/abuse. This is known as “bifurcating” a lease.

The housing provider may choose whether to bifurcate the lease, and if it’s done, it must be done consistent with applicable federal, state, or local laws and the requirements of your covered housing program. In the event of a lease bifurcation, if the household member who was removed was the resident who made your household eligible for assistance under your covered housing program, the housing provider must give those who remain a reasonable time to establish eligibility under the same program, under a different program, or to find other housing. While this is generally 90 days, it may be a different amount of time, depending on which covered housing program the resident is participating in.

Prohibition on retaliation. It’s illegal for a PHA or owner to retaliate against a victim because the resident opposed any action it took or practice it has that’s prohibited by VAWA. The housing provider also may not subject a resident to retaliation, coercion, intimidation, or threats because he or she testified, assisted, or participated in an action to enforce VAWA rights, including encouraging another or exercising his or her own rights under VAWA.