The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is a federal law that provides housing protection to applicants, tenants, and program participants in certain Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) programs from being denied housing assistance, terminated from housing assistance, or evicted based on acts of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking against them. Despite the name of this law, VAWA protection is available to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking regardless of sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Although the VAWA 2022 statute does not specifically include human trafficking in the list of victims protected under VAWA, in 2022 HUD began including human trafficking as part of the list of victims protected under VAWA. In the absence of a final rule implementing VAWA 2022 and to mirror HUD’s recent usage, this notice includes human trafficking in addition to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking anywhere such a list appears.
Below is a list of resources for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking.
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) and online at: www.thehotline.org
- HUD’s Notice on VAWA: www.hud.gov/vawa
- Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA): 1-800-300-1080 and online at: www.corasupport.org
- Project Sentinel for assistance with fair housing issues and/or tenant-landlord mediation services: 1-800-339-6043 and online at www.housing.org
The following are important documents under VAWA.