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.
Louisiana bill would allow sexual assault victims to end rental leases early
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Louisiana bill would allow sexual assault victims to end rental leases early
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Bill allowing survivors of sexual assault to terminate housing leases early moved forward Wednesday
April 14, 2021
LSU student Isabella Rovere, left, shared a personal experience with sexual assault as she sat alongside fellow LSU student Angelina Cantelli, Co-President of Tigers Against Sexual Assault.
Photo credit: Kathleen Peppo/LSU Manship School News Service
By Kathleen Peppo, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE–A bill to allow survivors of sexual assault to terminate housing leases early moved forward Wednesday.
Rep. Aimee Freeman (D-New Orleans), who brought the bill, said that she did so for the sake of all sexual assault survivors, but especially for college students who are victims of sexual assault.