State Law Compendium: Housing Rights of Domestic Violence Survivors

This Compendium compiles state and local laws that affect domestic violence survivors’ housing rights. It is designed to serve as a starting point for advocates seeking to conduct research on the housing protections that their state and local laws offer for domestic violence survivors. Examples of such protections include early lease termination provisions for domestic violence survivors, lock change laws, and affirmative defenses for evictions related to acts of domestic violence committed against a tenant.

The updated compendium includes laws enacted as of December 2017.

If you have questions or comments, please contact Renee Williams at rwilliams@nhlp.org

Download the updated compendium.

Update (September 2020):

Please note that there have been more recent updates since December 2017 that NHLP is currently working to incorporate into the Compendium publication.

States with updates to their housing protections for survivors include Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia.

If you are a housing advocate who would like the list of updated protections, please email kwalz@nhlp.org.