Hard Times
Domestic abuse victims often lose their apartments. When Quinn Bouley called the police after her husband Daniel Swedo attacked her in their St. Albans, Vt., apartment, she had little idea it would lead to a legal battle that would pit her against her landlord. She just wanted to be safe.
But three days after the incident, her landlord, Jacqueline Young-Sabourin, visited Bouley, telling her that Christianity would help her solve her marital problems, according to court documents. After Bouley rebuffed the theory, Young-Sabourin informed the resident by letter that she had to leave within 30 days. Eventually, the ACLU stepped in and prevented the eviction, but Bouley remained in her apartment under constant watch, with her landlord reporting the comings and goings of her visitors back to Swedo’s family. Eventually, Bouley brought suit under the Fair Housing Act, a claim that was upheld by U.S. District Court in Vermont.
Sadly, this situation (minus the religious proselytizing) happens more than people might think. “Most of these [domestic violence] situations are [also] eviction scenarios,” says Emily Martin, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. “A woman is abused by a visitor or someone else who lives in the apartment, and the landlord’s reaction is to either to evict the whole household or the victim on her own.”
Many victims of domestic violence find it difficult to come forward because of fear they will lose their apartment. “That’s the kind of catch-22 these women find themselves in,” Martin says. “When they take the steps that they need to, they are threatened with homelessness.”
Because many domestic abuse victims fear eviction if they come forward, Deb Widiss, staff attorney with Legal Momentum, previously the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, thinks property managers and landlords can play an invaluable role helping such women come forward and seek help. “It’s landlords communicating with their tenants that they’re not going to take these kinds of actions so that tenants feel safe getting protective orders,” she says.
–Les Shaver