For women living in Norristown, Penn., being abused by a partner will not only bring psychological and physical harm — it could also lead to homelessness.
While living in the city of 32,000, Lakisha Briggs was repeatedly beaten with a brick and stabbed by her boyfriend. Even as her life was being threatened, she hesitated calling local law enforcement, knowing the state’s “three strike” policy could leave her and her 3-year-old daughter out on the street.
Briggs learned of the policy after making her first call to law enforcement.
“I was shocked to find out that reaching out to the police for protection could instead lead to eviction for me and my family,” she said in an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) press release. “Nobody should have to fear losing their home when they call for help.”
Under a city ordinance, a landlord can evict a tenant if they are involved in three domestic disturbance calls — it doesn’t distinguish the difference between victim and perpetrator.
The supposed intent of the law is aimed at creating peaceful communities, yet has the opposite result for victims of domestic abuse who feel unable to reach out to local law enforcement for protection.
“When a city penalizes a woman for requesting help for domestic violence, the system is broken,” ACLU Attorney Sandra Park said in a press release. “Laws that stop tenants from calling the police are unconstitutional and can actually put lives at risk.”
Briggs made one phone call to her local police department, yet the other two calls came from concerned neighbors, still qualifying Briggs for eviction under city law. On the third police visit to her home, she was warned by a police officer that he would pressure her landlord to have her evicted, according to her account given to the ACLU.
The officer’s threat came with action. The city contacted the landlord, urging for Briggs to be evicted. The case went to housing court, yet that wasn’t the end of the battle. The city then threatened to have the house condemned, which would force mandatory eviction.
Briggs’ case was picked up by the ACLU, along with the law firm of Pepper Hamilton, which challenged the city ordinance through a federal lawsuit, claiming it violated victims’ rights to contact law enforcement, akin to petitioning their government.
It wasn’t the first time the ACLU intervened in a case like this. In a post written by Park on the ACLU website, the ACLU stepped in during an Illinois case involving a woman who once contacted law enforcement for domestic abuse. Her husband was charged with resisting arrest and battery. The woman, the victim, was evicted.
“The ACLU has long argued that evictions based on domestic violence can discriminate against women, because such evictions are often motivated by gender stereotypes that hold victims responsible for the abuse they experience, and because the vast majority of victims are women,” the post states.