Women Renters Beware!
WOMEN RENTERS BEWARE!
by Claudia Green
In the following story, the names of tenants have been withheld due to the Tenants Union's policy of confidentiality.
In 1983 an Ypsilanti woman alleges that a man entered her apartment, threw her down on the bed and tried to force her to have sex with him. The man was her landlord. The woman resisted and fought him off. Five years later she is still fighting her assailant, this time in a civil suit against him. The woman has moved out, but today, the landlord's other female tenants (they claim he does not rent to men) complain that he frequently enters the common space at his rooming houses unannounced, at odd hours, and makes sexual overtures toward them.
Though complaints are registered infrequently, the problem of sexual harassment in housing is more common than one might guess. Unscrupulous landlords think that because a woman rents from him, she is "fair game." They take advantage of the control they feel they have over women, entering their living premises when they wish, demanding attention and even sex when they want it. Refusal of sexual advances is often grounds for retaliation by the landlord. One Ann Arbor woman charged that when she told her landlord she was not interested; he sprayed insecticide into her apartment. Other women face eviction for refusing sex to their landlord.
Housing advocates and tenants say that as the availability of housing decreases, the incidence of sexual harassment increases, as do other landlord scams and crimes. The more vulnerable an abusive landlord thinks a person is, the more likely he is to harass them. College-age women renting for the first time and single women with children in a city like Ann Arbor, where affordable housing is hard to come by, are perceived as the easiest targets to such landlords.
Regina Cahan, a Wisconsin law student and Elizabeth Shumann-Moore, a Chicago lawyer, surveyed 150 housing councils across the country. Based on their results, they estimate that there are at least 7,000 to 15,000 cases of tenant sexual harassment nationwide, cutting across economic lines. As with other kinds of sexual assault and harassment, most tenants do not report their landlords' behavior due to embarrassment, fear of reprisal, and (especially) lack of housing options.
Sexual harassment of tenants takes on many different forms including illegal entries, unwanted physical advances, harassment about a lover or spouse, promises of rent reduction in exchange for sex, threats of eviction or no repairs, and even rape. Women are also subjected to discrimination in housing based on their status as a single mother, income level and sexual preference.
Only in the last six years have female tenants brought landlords to court for sexual harassment . In 1982, an Ohio woman was awarded $7,500 under the Federal Fair Housing Act after her landlord had tried to convince her to pose nude for photos and offered her money to have sex with him. The woman refused and the landlord soon evicted her and her husband and son in a dispute over a refrigerator (Janet Bode, City Limits, June/July-1986). But bringing the issue to court is still very difficult, because as in any kind of sexual harassment or sexual assault cases, there are often no witnesses and other tenants who may have suffered similar treatment from the same landlord are afraid to come forward or have moved away. Judges, and even women's lawyers often have closed ears to complaints of invasion of privacy and harassment.
Landlord-tenant law offers tenants little protection against unannounced visits by their landlords, thus opening the way for sexual harassment. Local law states that a landlord must give "reasonable notice" before entry, but offers no definition of "reasonable." And, though an unannounced entry is the equivalent of trespassing, tenants report that police respond to their complaints by telling them that the landlord is the property owner.
Recently, a Saline woman who has a second lock on her door to protect herself from illegal entries by her landlord was visited by a Washtenaw County Deputy who had been summoned by the landlord. The deputy told the tenant that the landlord had a right to have the key. Two weeks later, the woman called the police herself after the landlord hit her for not giving him the key. The same deputy initially refused to file a complaint because there were no witnesses other than her children and the "landlord swore up and down that he didn't hit her." Despite police and landlord pressure, the woman continues to refuse her landlord a key.
Women organizing outside the courtroom have helped expose the problem and the perpetrators of landlord sexual harassment. In 1987, an Ann Arbor organization called "Women Rising in Resistance" (WRR) composed of women from various organizations including the Domestic Violence Project and the Ann Arbor Tenants Union confronted one landlord who had been arrested twice for assaulting women. Landlord Jeff Gallatin, owner of Gallatin Manor on E. William, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a former female tenant in 1984 and for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend at his office in June 1987. During the confrontation, WRR warned Gallatin that he would be watched and be held accountable for his actions. Women continue to contact the Tenants Union regarding alleged sexual harassment by Gallatin as well as sexual advances by his employees.
Tenants should set guidelines with their landlord for all entries by the landlord and his/her agents at the beginning of tenancy. If a landlord violates these guidelines, the tenant should write a letter to the landlord reiterating what the tenant's expectations are in terms of privacy. The landlord should be told how much time is required before he or she enters. Two or three days notice is reasonable. If the landlord continues to disregard tenant guidelines and trespasses on the property; the tenant can begin withholding rent until his/her conditions are met, and/or add a second lock, letting the landlord know how and when access to the house or apartment can be gained. If due to an emergency a landlord were forced to break a window to get in, the tenant could theoretically be held liable for the cost of the window.
Tenants experiencing invasion of their privacy or any kind of physical or verbal harassment by their landlord should contact the Ann Arbor Tenants Union at 763-6876. Due to the number of complaints received by the Tenants Union regarding this issue, we have made it a priority for our work during the coming year.