***The House of Representatives was on Recess last week.***
Legislation Introduced to Combat Sexual Harassment in Housing
Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) recently introduced legislation, called the
Combating Sexual Harassment in Housing Act (H.R. 3745), to establish protections against sexual harassment in rental housing. In a press release, Rep. Lawrence stated: “Sexual harassment is not just a workplace issue. Sexual harassment in housing has been grossly underreported, leaving victims across the country to suffer in silence because of a lack of protections. Currently, existing protections are limited to federal public housing under previous civil rights laws. However, I am proud to introduce legislation that would establish protections across the housing market, including all rental properties.”
The legislation would amend the Fair Housing Act to make it easier for victims to bring cases of sexual harassment to court. Harassment against a tenant would be an automatic violation of the statute; this includes “unwelcome touching of a sexual nature or groping, or other actions of a sexual nature intended to be coercive, threatening or intimidating.”
The legislation has 16 cosponsors and has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. For more information on the legislation, please click
here.
