Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced a bipartisan bill on February 9 to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). First passed in 1994, VAWA provides comprehensive programs and supports to survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and human trafficking. The bill’s provisions are reauthorized about once every five years to update existing protections.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the VAWA reauthorization bill with bipartisan support in March 2021 (see Memo, 3/15/21), but since then the bill has been stalled in the Senate. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill include vital housing programs and protections for survivors of violence, including an expansion of VAWA housing protections to tenants living in housing assisted by the national Housing Trust Fund or the HUD Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, or any other affordable housing program that receives federal funding.
The bill also mandates that agencies administering federal housing assistance programs conduct a compliance review to ensure tenants are not denied assistance on the basis of their status as survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking, and to ensure agencies engage in appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality of survivors. Agencies will also be required to report on their compliance with emergency transfer requirements and prohibitions on agency retaliation against survivors for exercising their rights under VAWA.
The bill would establish an Office of Gender-Based Violence Prevention at HUD that would be headed by a Violence Against Women Act Director. The Director would be charged with coordinating VAWA implementation between federal agencies and within state and local governments and agencies, as well as with providing agencies and governments with technical assistance and support. The updated statute would also affirm the right of survivors to report to law enforcement or request emergency assistance without facing penalties, fines, evictions, or non-renewal of tenancy.
The VAWA reauthorization bill would expand the definition of “homelessness” to include individuals “fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or other dangerous, traumatic, or life-threatening conditions” who have no safe residence aside from the residence from which they are fleeing and who lack the resources to obtain safe housing elsewhere. The bill would authorize funding to support the study of the housing needs of survivors of human trafficking as well.
Unfortunately, the Senate bill does not contain provisions to establish the VAWA Victim Relocation Pool Vouchers proposed in the House version of the bill. The proposal would create a separate pool of vouchers for survivors living in federally assisted housing in need of immediate transfers to different units to escape violence.
Read the press release for the VAWA reauthorization bill at: https://tinyurl.com/2p8s66ym
Read the text of the bill at: https://tinyurl.com/4n2bspf3