Sexual Harassment in Housing

Sexual harassment in housing is when a housing provider or their employee:

• makes unwelcome sexual advances
   
• demands sex or sexual favors
   
• repeatedly uses words or acts of a sexual nature
   
• rapes or sexually assaults you

IT IS ILLEGAL

The law can apply to all kinds of housing. This includes privately owned houses, apartment buildings, condo associations, public housing and homeless shelters.

 When the harasser

• asks you out on a date
   
• asks you to trade sex or sexual favors for rent 
   
• threatens to evict you because you refuse to have sex with them
   
• won’t make repairs because you won’t have sex or because you tell them to stop
   
• makes sexual comments to you that make you feel threatened or uncomfortable
   
• touches you in an unwanted sexual way 
   
• rapes or sexually assaults you
   

It does not matter if you go along with it or refuse. Even if you have gone along with demands for sex in the past, you have the right to stop it now. 

• Call a lawyer to talk about your options. A lawyer can:
  • Get a court order to keep the harasser away from you
     
  • Fight eviction that your landlord filed because of your response to sexual harassment
     
  • Start a civil rights case and ask the court to make the landlord pay money damages to you.

• It is illegal for a landlord or housing employees to make you have sex with them by threatening to evict you if you don’t.
   
• It is illegal for a landlord to make unwanted sexual comments to you that make you feel intimidated.
   
• If you are being sexually harassed by your housing provider, tell them to stop.
   
• Write down what happened to you while it is still fresh in your memory. It is important to have written records.
   
• It is illegal for a landlord to evict you because you called the police for help.
   

You have the right to be free from sexual harassment.

Call your local legal aid office at 1(877) 696-6529.

Look for other programs that may help at www.lawhelpmn.org/providers-and-clinics. 

Go to www.LawHelpMN.org for more information about fair housing rights and resources.