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A new study carried out by the University of Missouri indicates that sexual harassment by landlords is a real problem in the United States. Of the randomly selected women who took part in the study, 10% reported that their landlords had sexually harassed them. Most of the women were in their 20’s when the incidents happened, and ethnic minorities were disproportionately represented; all were living in the private rental sector at the time. All but one of the women didn’t report their harassment to the police because they feared being evicted from their home.
“While the sample was limited, I think the results of this study should be a wake-up call to policymakers,” says author Rigel Oliveri, a law professor at the University of Missouri. “Low-income women are easy prey for landlords who seek to exploit them for sex.”
#metoo is a Global Issue
With the #metoo movement gaining momentum, more women are coming forward to report their experiences of sexual harassment.
Sex for Rent in the UK
In the UK, stories of sexual harassment by landlords have hit the headlines in recent months. A BBC investigation found that landlords were frequently offering sex for rent deals whereby young female tenants were offered free rental accommodation in return for sexual services. A YouGov poll found that in the last five years, 250,000 women reported being offered free or cut-price accommodation in return for sexual favours. That’s a lot of women!
Sex-for-rent adverts are illegal, yet they are there for all to see online. The decision about whether to prosecute landlords offering sex in exchange for free rent deals rests with the Crown Prosecution Service, but with the legal system massively overstretched and underfunded police dealing with a rise in violent crime, it’s doubtful that many of these landlords will be held to account.
Predatory Landlords
Indeed, most of them won’t care that they are breaking the law – they know that there are plenty of vulnerable young women out there who will feel this type of arrangement is their only option. Many of these vulnerable women are students. The BBC investigation found that students in Kent, Canterbury, and Bristol had all been targeted by predatory landlords.
The #metoo movement has given vulnerable women a voice, but we need to shout a bit louder to deter opportunist landlords from taking advantage.
