HUD synopsis of VAWA reauthorization in 2013

Date:
Author:
HUD

Specifically it states VAWA:
 

  • VAWA 2013 continues to bar eviction and termination due to a tenant’s status as a survivor, and requires landlords to maintain survivor-tenant confidentiality. It also continues to prohibit a tenant who is a survivor of domestic violence from being denied assistance, tenancy, or occupancy rights based solely on criminal activity related to an act of domestic violence committed against them.
  • VAWA 2013 now expressly extends housing protections to survivors of sexual assault, and adds “intimate partner” to the list of eligible relationships in the domestic violence definition. Protections also now cover an “affiliated individual,” which includes any person living with the survivor and related to him or her by blood or marriage including the survivor’s spouse, parent, brother, sister, child, or any person to whom the survivor stands in loco parentis.
  • It continues to allow a lease bifurcation so a tenant or lawful occupant who engages in criminal acts of physical violence against affiliated individuals or others may be evicted or removed without evicting or removing or otherwise penalizing a victim who is a tenant or lawful occupant. If victim cannot establish eligibility, the landlord must give a reasonable amount of time to find new housing or establish eligibility under another covered housing program.
  • New housing protections in VAWA 2013 includes the requirement that each appropriate agency develop a notice of rights under VAWA for tenants and provide such notice at the time a person applies for housing, when a person is admitted as a tenant of a housing unit, and when a tenant is threatened with eviction or termination of housing benefits.
  • VAWA 2013 requires each appropriate agency to adopt a model transfer plan for use by public housing agencies and owners or managers of housing. Tenants must request a transfer and reasonably believe that they are threatened with imminent harm from further violence if the tenant remains in the same unit.