Current law allows for survivors of domestic violence to abandon a lease early.
But if a survivor of sexual assault who is not in a relationship with the abuser asks to be released from his or her rental agreement, and a landlord refuses, the survivor has no choice but to continue paying rent until the lease ends.
Freeman’s bill would extend the right to abandon the lease to include survivors of abuse who are not in an intimate relationship with their abuser.
Freeman said that it is not only necessary for the safety of many survivors to terminate a lease early, as their abusers often know where they live, but also for their healing.