VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMENS ACT

摘要

Massachusetts Housing Authority's Eviction of Woman Overturned Where Authority Told Her It Would Use WAVA Bifurcation Process If She Obtained Restraining Order After Boyfriend's Domestic Abuse, But Instead Followed Eviction of Boyfriend Based on Drug Activity Elsewhere The Massachusetts Court of Appeals ruled that a housing authority's eviction was improperly upheld by the housing court against a woman tenant who was sexually assaulted on the premises by her co-tenant boyfriend, where she raised the bifurcation proceeding under the Violence Against Womens Act with the authority and was told that she would need separate documentation of the incident, such as a restraining order, to pursue that, although she had already provided the housing authority a detailed police report of the incident. The appellate court af- firmed the eviction of the boyfriend co-tenant based on off-premises drug activity which occurred six months after the assault. New Bedford Housing Authority v. K.R, - N.E.3d -, 2020 WL 2758860 (Mass. Ct. App. May 28, 2020).