Report Title:
Housing Discrimination; Domestic Violence
Description:
Prohibits discrimination in real property transactions against victims of domestic violence. (SD1)
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
2464 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2002 |
S.D. 1 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to domestic violence.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that domestic violence crimes account for approximately fifteen per cent of total crime costs in the United States each year. Violence against women has been reported to be the leading cause of physical injury, having a devastating impact on women's physical and emotional health and financial security. According to recent federal government surveys, from 1993 through 1998, the average annual number of violent victimizations committed by intimate partners was 1,082,110. Eighty-seven per cent of these assaults were committed against women, with women victims being substantially more likely to have been killed by an intimate partner. Abusers frequently seek to control their partners by actively interfering with their ability to maintain safe housing, including preventing their partners from leaving their homes, harassing their partners at home, preventing their victims from filing reports of abuse with police or seeking of restraining orders, limiting the access of their partners to cash or transportation, and sabotaging the child care arrangements of their partners. More than one-half of women receiving welfare have been victims of domestic violence as adults and between one-fourth and one-third reported being abused in the last year.
The legislature finds that it is in the public interest and a matter of safety to reduce domestic violence by enabling victims of domestic violence to:
(1) Maintain the independence necessary to leave abusive situations;
(2) Find safety;
(3) Minimize the physical and emotional injuries from domestic violence;
(4) Recover from and cope with the effects of the violence;
(5) Participate in criminal and civil justice processes relating to the violence without fear of losing their housing; and
(6) Protect the housing rights of victims of domestic violence.
The purpose of this Act is to prohibit discrimination in real property transactions against victims of domestic violence, and to recognize the legitimate interests of housing providers to safety, and the right to quiet enjoyment that all persons should have in their homes.
SECTION 2. Section 515-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding six new definitions to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:
""Dating relationship" means a romantic, courtship, or engagement relationship, often but not necessarily characterized by actions of an intimate or sexual nature, not including a casual acquaintanceship or ordinary fraternization between persons in a business or social context.
"Domestic abuse" means:
(1) Physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or the threat of imminent physical harm, bodily injury, or assault, extreme psychological abuse or malicious property damage between family or household members; or
(2) Any act that would constitute an offense under section 709-906, or under part V or VI of chapter 707, committed against a minor family or household member by an adult family or household member.
"Extreme psychological abuse" means an intentional or knowing course of conduct directed at an individual that seriously alarms or consistently disturbs, or continually bothers the individual, and that serves no legitimate purpose; provided that the course of conduct would cause a reasonable person to suffer extreme emotional distress.
"Family or household member" means spouses or reciprocal beneficiaries, former spouses or former reciprocal beneficiaries, persons who have a child in common, parents, children, persons related by consanguinity, persons jointly residing or formerly residing in the same dwelling units, and persons who have or have had a dating relationship.
"Malicious property damage" means an intentional or knowing damage to the property or another, without consent and with an intent to cause emotional distress.
"Victim of domestic abuse" includes any person who has been the subject of domestic abuse."
SECTION 3. Section 515-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§515-3 Discriminatory practices. It is a discriminatory practice for an owner or any other person engaging in a real estate transaction, or for a real estate broker or salesperson, because of race, sex, color, religion, marital status, familial status, ancestry, disability, age, [or] HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection[:], or a person's status as a victim of domestic abuse:
(1) To refuse to engage in a real estate transaction with a person;
(2) To discriminate against a person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of a real estate transaction or in the furnishing of facilities or services in connection therewith;
(3) To refuse to receive or to fail to transmit a bona fide offer to engage in a real estate transaction from a person;
(4) To refuse to negotiate for a real estate transaction with a person;
(5) To represent to a person that real property is not available for inspection, sale, rental, or lease when in fact it is so available, or to fail to bring a property listing to the person's attention, or to refuse to permit the person to inspect real property, or to steer a person seeking to engage in a real estate transaction;
(6) To print, circulate, post, or mail, or cause to be so published a statement, advertisement, or sign, or to use a form of application for a real estate transaction, or to make a record or inquiry in connection with a prospective real estate transaction, which indicates, directly or indirectly, an intent to make a limitation, specification, or discrimination with respect thereto;
(7) To offer, solicit, accept, use, or retain a listing of real property with the understanding that a person may be discriminated against in a real estate transaction or in the furnishing of facilities or services in connection therewith;
(8) To refuse to engage in a real estate transaction with a person or to deny equal opportunity to use and enjoy a housing accommodation due to a disability because the person uses the services of a guide dog, signal dog, or service animal; provided that reasonable restrictions or prohibitions may be imposed regarding excessive noise or other problems caused by those animals. For the purposes of this paragraph:
"Blind" shall be as defined in section 235-1;
"Deaf" shall be as defined in section 235-1;
"Guide dog" means any dog individually trained by a licensed guide dog trainer for guiding a blind person by means of a harness attached to the dog and a rigid handle grasped by the person;
"Reasonable restriction" shall not include any restriction that allows any owner or person to refuse to negotiate or refuse to engage in a real estate transaction; provided that as used in this paragraph, the "reasonableness" of a restriction shall be examined by giving due consideration to the needs of a reasonable prudent person in the same or similar circumstances. Depending on the circumstances, a "reasonable restriction" may require the owner of the service animal, guide dog, or signal dog to comply with one or more of the following:
(A) Observe applicable laws including leash laws and pick-up laws;
(B) Assume responsibility for damage caused by the dog; or
(C) Have the housing unit cleaned upon vacating by fumigation, deodorizing, professional carpet cleaning, or other method appropriate under the circumstances.
The foregoing list is illustrative only, and neither exhaustive nor mandatory;
"Service animal" means any animal that is trained to provide those life activities limited by the disability of the person;
"Signal dog" means any dog that is trained to alert a deaf person to intruders or sounds;
(9) To solicit or require as a condition of engaging in a real estate transaction that the buyer, renter, or lessee be tested for human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV), the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS);
(10) To refuse to permit, at the expense of a person with a disability, reasonable modifications to existing premises occupied or to be occupied by the person if modifications may be necessary to afford the person full enjoyment of the premises. A real estate broker or salesperson, where it is reasonable to do so, may condition permission for a modification on the person agreeing to restore the interior of the premises to the condition that existed before the modification, reasonable wear and tear excepted;
(11) To refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when the accommodations may be necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a housing accommodation;
(12) In connection with the design and construction of covered multifamily housing accommodations for first occupancy after March 13, 1991, to fail to design and construct housing accommodations in such a manner that:
(A) The housing accommodations have at least one accessible entrance, unless it is impractical to do so because of the terrain or unusual characteristics of the site; and
(B) With respect to housing accommodations with an accessible building entrance:
(i) The public use and common use portions of the housing accommodations are accessible to and usable by disabled persons;
(ii) Doors allow passage by persons in wheelchairs; and
(iii) All premises within covered multifamily housing accommodations contain an accessible route into and through the housing accommodations; light switches, electrical outlets, thermostats, and other environmental controls are in accessible locations; reinforcements in the bathroom walls allow installation of grab bars; and kitchens and bathrooms are accessible by wheelchair; or
(13) To discriminate against or deny a person access to, or membership or participation in any multiple listing service, real estate broker's organization, or other service, organization, or facility involved either directly or indirectly in real estate transactions, or to discriminate against any person in the terms or conditions of such access, membership, or participation."
SECTION 4. Section 515-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§515-4 Exemptions. (a) Section 515-3 does not apply:
(1) To the rental of a housing accommodation in a building which contains housing accommodations for not more than two families living independently of each other if the lessor resides in one of the housing accommodations; or
(2) To the rental of a room or up to four rooms in a housing accommodation by an individual if the individual resides therein.
(b) Nothing in this chapter regarding familial status or age shall apply to housing for older persons as defined by 42 United States Code section 3607(b)(2).
(c) If an incident of domestic abuse has occurred at the victim's housing accommodation, the owner of the housing accommodation may request that the victim provide proof that the victim is taking appropriate action aimed at lessening the threat of future incidents of domestic abuse and the possibility that other residents or employees of the housing accommodation may be harmed as a result of domestic abuse, including but not limited to, requiring proof that the victim has reported the domestic abuse to appropriate law enforcement entities or is taking action to obtain a restraining order against the perpetrator of the domestic abuse.
(d) Nothing in this chapter affects any right of the owner of the housing accommodation to seek to have any property damage resulting from acts of domestic abuse repaired at the expense of the tenant."
SECTION 5. Section 515-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§515-5 Discriminatory financial practices. It is a discriminatory practice for a person, a representative of such person, or a real estate broker or salesperson, to whom an inquiry or application is made for financial assistance in connection with a real estate transaction or for the construction, rehabilitation, repair, maintenance, or improvement of real property, because of race, sex, color, religion, marital status, familial status, ancestry, disability, age, [or] HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection[:], or a person's status as a victim of domestic abuse:
(1) To discriminate against the applicant;
(2) To use a form of application for financial assistance or to make or keep a record or inquiry in connection with applications for financial assistance which indicates, directly or indirectly, an intent to make a limitation, specification, or discrimination unless such records are required by federal law;
(3) To discriminate in the making or purchasing of loans or the provision of other financial assistance for purchasing, constructing, improving, repairing, or maintaining a dwelling, or the making or purchasing of loans or the provision of other financial assistance secured by residential real estate; or
(4) To discriminate in the selling, brokering, or appraising of residential real property."
SECTION 6. Section 515-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsections (a) and (b) to read as follows:
"(a) Every provision in an oral agreement or a written instrument relating to real property which purports to forbid or restrict the conveyance, encumbrance, occupancy, or lease thereof to individuals because of race, sex, color, religion, marital status, familial status, ancestry, disability, age, status as a victim of domestic abuse, or HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection, is void.
(b) Every condition, restriction, or prohibition, including a right of entry or possibility of reverter, which directly or indirectly limits the use or occupancy of real property on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, marital status, familial status, ancestry, disability, age, status as a victim of domestic abuse, or HIV infection is void, except a limitation, on the basis of religion, on the use of real property held by a religious institution or organization or by a religious or charitable organization operated, supervised, or controlled by a religious institution or organization, and used for religious or charitable purposes."
SECTION 7. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 8. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.