U.S. Attorney’s Office and DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Host Roundtable on Sexual Harassment in Housing

NEWS RELEASE SUMMARY – June 25, 2019

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division hosted a roundtable today for community organizations, U.S. Attorney Robert S. Brewer, Jr. announced.  The event included local law enforcement agencies, legal aid offices, fair housing organizations, and community groups that work with individuals who use transitional housing. Each organization invited has regular contact with Southern California’s most vulnerable populations, who could also become victims of sexual harassment in housing.

“Sexual harassment in housing can be even more egregious than harassment in the workplace,” U.S. Attorney Brewer said. “Landlords and property managers cannot be permitted to use their power over housing as a weapon to extort sexual favors from tenants. We’re extremely proud to be holding a meaningful discussion with community partners about how to combat this serious problem.”

While most people are familiar with the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, harassment also occurs in the housing context, and the Fair Housing Act prohibits it. Sexual harassment by landlords, property managers, maintenance workers, and others with power over housing often affects the most vulnerable populations - single mothers, women who are financially unstable, and women who have suffered sexual violence in their past. And these women often do not know where to turn for help.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is working closely with the DOJ Civil Rights Division to ensure people are aware of options to help victims experiencing sexual harassment or who experienced sexual harassment in housing in the past. Often it is community organizations, such as local law enforcement, legal aid offices, fair housing organizations, shelters and transitional housing providers, that are in the best position to identify housing abuses and recommend that victims report sexual harassment to DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. By increasing awareness and building strong partnerships, we can better combat this problem in our community.

Each year DOJ brings cases involving egregious conduct, including allegations that defendants have exposed themselves sexually to current or prospective tenants, requested sexual favors in exchange for reduced rents or making necessary repairs, made unrelenting and unwanted sexual advances to tenants, and evicted tenants who resisted their sexual overtures.  The case filed against San Diego landlord Larry Nelson earlier this month is illustrative. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, alleges that Nelson engaged in sexual harassment and retaliation of female tenants from at least 2005 to the present, by, among other things, engaging in unwelcome sexual touching, offering to reduce monthly rental payments in exchange for sex, making unwelcome sexual comments and advances, making intrusive and unannounced visits to female tenants’ homes to further his sexual advances, and evicting or threatening to evict female tenants who objected or refused his sexual advances.

The roundtable is an integral part of a DOJ initiative that seeks to identify barriers to reporting sexual harassment in housing, increase awareness of its enforcement efforts - both among victims and those they may report to - and collaborate with federal, state, and local partners to increase reporting and help women quickly and easily connect with federal resources. DOJ encourages anyone who has experienced sexual harassment in housing, or knows someone who has, to contact the Civil Rights Division by calling (844) 380-6178 or emailing: fairhousing@usdoj.gov.

Individuals who believe they may have been victims of discrimination may also file a complaint with the U.S. Attorney’s Office at: http://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/civil-rights-enforcement/complaint or may call the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Civil Rights Complaint Hotline at (855) 281-3339.