The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (the center) estimated that domestic violence victims evicted because of the abuse they suffer make up more than 11 percent of all evictions. Property owners evict domestic violence victims for a range of abuse-related factors, including because the police came to the property, the person obtained a protection from abuse order, or because of crimes the abuser committed.

Once you have had an eviction filed against you, you are likely to have a harder time finding housing. In many background screening services (and in the opinions of many property owners), it does not matter if you win or lose, the filing is the problem. Given that context, it is not surprising that the center estimated that domestic violence victims comprised 28 percent of housing denials (again, because of the crimes committed against them).

The housing instability caused by eviction and increased difficulty finding housing cannot be underestimated. It may cause people to choose substandard housing, which often results in frequent moves, which are destabilizing (especially for children). There is also significant evidence that domestic violence is a major contributor to homelessness.

VAWA Protections for LIHTC Tenants

Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994, with the goal of improving protections for victims of domestic violence. It proved to be just the first step of that effort. One major change in subsequent amendments to VAWA occurred because advocates educated legislators about the fact that domestic violence victims were being evicted because of the abuse they experienced. In 2005, Congress amended VAWA to prohibit eviction or denial of admissions in public housing abuse (and other federal housing programs) because someone was a victim of abuse. What it did not do, was cover Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties, which is the largest funding source for the development of affordable housing in the United States. By 2013, Congress corrected that oversight.

LIHTC is not a housing program. Despite the fact that more than 13.3 million people have lived in a LIHTC-funded building, the Department of Housing and Urban Development does not regulate LIHTC. Instead, it is treated as a provision of the IRS Code and regulated by the IRS. The allocation of credits and oversight of individual properties generally takes place at the state level through a state Housing Finance Agency (HFA).

Under VAWA 2013, the IRS was supposed to generate regulations to implement VAWA in LIHTC. As of this writing, it has still not done so. Despite the Treasury's failure to act, HFAs still have the power and obligation to take steps to ensure VAWA's protections are available to LIHTC tenants.

A Powerful Collaboration

Regional Housing Legal Services (RHLS), based in Glenside, with offices in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, is a specialty program in the Pennsylvania legal services system. RHLS was formed to address systemic housing issues. In the 1970s the conditions at Warminster Heights were substandard and generating an overwhelming number of requests for assistance from individuals. RHLS was able to work with the tenants as a group, to help them form a cooperative and to purchase the property. We also helped them identify and secure funding to rehabilitate the property. Today, RHLS represents nonprofits that develop affordable housing and advocates for policies and programs that improve the lives of low-income households, communities and the organizations that serve them.

RHLS has deep expertise in the LIHTC—transactional legal expertise as well as policy and implementation. What we do not have is experience representing tenants of LIHTC properties or working with victims of domestic violence or sexual assault. In addition, RHLS's focus is on Pennsylvania, but the problem is national. We were able to partner with legal and advocacy organizations across the country with complementary skills and significantly accelerate the implementation of VAWA in LIHTC.

In 2016, RHLS teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, National Network to End Domestic Violence, National Housing Law Project, and Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law (the coalition) to educate HFAs about VAWA 2013 and survey them on what they were doing to implement it.

Twenty-three states responded to the survey. The majority of the respondents said they had already or planned to: educate owners, developers and management agents about VAWA; educate tenants about VAWA; and offer trainings for owners, developers and management agents about VAWA implementation. The findings (as well as a detailed discussion of VAWA's applicability to LIHTC and suggested best practices) were included in ”Protections Delayed: State Housing Finance Agency Compliance With The Violence Against Women Act,” which was issued in early 2017.

HFAs generally issue annual Qualified Allocation Plans (QAPs), which contain criteria for developments and participants as well as the point structure for scoring applications. HFAs use a point system to incentivize certain development characteristics. Only three HFAs responded to the survey saying that they addressed VAWA 2013 in their QAP.

Accelerating VAWA Implementation in LIHTC

Given the low response rate to the question about VAWA inclusion in the QAP and the fact that we received less than a 50-percent response rate to the survey, RHLS decided to take the additional step of checking the QAPs. We set out to check the QAPs for the year before the survey (2016), which we assumed would be the QAPs respondents were references in their answers and to see if there had been any increase in the number of states addressing VAWA in their 2017 QAPs.

We found a tremendous increase over the two years. The number of QAPs that in some way reference VAWA obligations issues grew from three to 12. We also reviewed the publicly available compliance manuals and found 13 states addressed VAWA obligations there. In total, 22 states were addressing VAWA obligations in either the QAP or the compliance manual. When adding those states to the states that self-reported in the survey, 33 states were taking steps to implement VAWA in LIHTC. The results made it clear that our coalition and its strategy was having an impact. It was also clear that there was more work to do.

In late 2017, the National Council of State Housing Finance Agencies (NCSHA), which is the trade association for HFAs, decided to revise its best practices guidance for LIHTC. The original draft of the revised best practices did not mention VAWA. RHLS independently and with members of the Coalition submitted comments to NCSHA. The final document did contain an extensive section on VAWA. In addition, NCSHA has now held multiple training sessions on VAWA in LIHTC and the issue is high on the radar of compliance consultants.

RHLS is working to review the 2018 QAPs as HFAs make them available. We have seen encouraging signs already. The coalition is also planning another round of the survey for 2018. We continue to see the survey as an education tool as well as a way to gather information that is not easily accessible. We have learned that with the right partners and the right tools, we can significantly accelerate the adoption of practices that protect low-income tenants across the country.

Rachel Blake is the associate director of Regional Housing Legal Services. She focuses on policy and advocacy efforts. Current projects include: working to improve implementation of protections for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in LIHTC properties and advocacy to increase the protections against utility terminations for chronically ill Pennsylvanians.