HUD Announces How the Violence Against Women Act Will Affect HUD Programs

Communications Admin • Sep 09, 2013

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a notice in the Federal Register on August 6, to provide information on how the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act 2013 (VAWA 2013) will apply to HUD programs. Enacted on March 7, 2013, VAWA 2013 was designed to protect both adult and child victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

VAWA 2013 expands the original applicability beyond public housing and Section 8 tenant-based and project-based rental assistance programs and now includes:

Low Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit)
Section 202 Housing for the Elderly
Section 811 Housing for Persons With Disabilities
Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)
HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME)
Section 221(d) mortgage insurance
Section 236 mortgage insurance programs
Other rural housing assistance programs (authorized by the Housing Act of 1949)

Notable expansions in VAWA 2013 include replacing “immediate family member” with “affiliated individual” as it relates to prohibiting the termination of assistance because of criminal activity relating to domestic or dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. If the tenant or “affiliated individual” is the victim of criminal activity described above, it cannot be cause for ending assistance or occupancy rights.

Other expansions include:

Extending housing protections to survivors of sexual assault
Adding “intimate partner to the list of eligible relationships under the domestic violence definition
Click here to read the entire notice for more expansions.

HUD is also inviting comments from HUD program participants and interested members of the community until October 7, 2013, to help HUD as it continues to create guidance and regulations. HUD encourages electronic submission of comments, and commenters should search by docket number: FR–5720–N–01. You can also find additional information from the National Council of State Housing Agencies and the National Housing Law Project.

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