Housing official to sexual abusers: ‘We’re coming after you, big time’
The new federal push against sexual harassment in housing means “the party’s over” for harassers, abusers and predators, according to a no-nonsense federal official, herself a childhood victim.
“We’re coming after you, big time,” said Anna Maria Farias, assistant secretary for fair housing and equal opportunity in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
She was talking about the Task Force to Combat Sexual Harassment in Housing, a joint effort of HUD and the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled April 11, the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
It focuses on data sharing and analysis, joint training, evaluation of public housing complaint processes, public outreach,
and federal policy review. It is the expansion of a pilot program launched in October in the District of Columbia and Virginia.
Farias emphasized law enforcement. She was keynote speaker at the fourth annual Oklahoma Fair Housing & Health Equity Seminar and Regional Housing Forum, held at the Oklahoma History Center in celebration of the silver anniversary of fair housing law.
“It’s not enough that you get fired” for sexual harassment or assault, she said. “When the Department of Justice is there, it’s a felony.”
She added, “Once you’re in jail, good luck. What’s good for the one is good for the other.”
The initiative aims to enhance protection from harassment by landlords, property managers, maintenance workers,
security guards, and other employees and representatives of rental property owners.
The pilot program won relief for 15 victims, according to the Justice Department, and generated such response in D.C. and Virginia that officials expect a sharp spike in sexual harassment complaints when word of the push gets out.
Speaking from experience
Farias may be uniquely qualified for such work, having lived in, fought for and led federal housing.
She lived in the projects as a child in Crystal City, Texas, then again years later as executive director of the housing authority. She was evicted when the corrupt board ousted her, then moved back in after an election turned the tables on her opponents.
Opposing her then, in the early 1990s, were thugs and Mexican and borderland gangsters
used to ruling in the government projects, she said, recalling days of packing a .357 Magnum in her car and nights of sleeping with a 9 mm pistol under her pillow.
Farias said she fought hard to clean up the place, and let it be known that if criminals came after her, she’d take a few out with her. She had some close calls, but succeeded to plaudits from the National Association of Redevelopment and Housing Officials.
“Anybody who knows me knows when I say I’m coming after you, I’m coming after you,” said Farias, a Harvard-educated attorney who was inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000.
She also had an early experience that energizes her for the sexual harassment initiative. When she was 11, she said, she overheard a maintenance man in the Crystal City projects as he “put the moves on” her mother. She repulsed him.
Then, Farias said, “the S.O.B.” pushed it: “If not you, then how about your daughter?” With the girl’s baseball bat handy, Farias said her mother got rid of the lecher by threatening to break his knees and crush his skull.
“All discrimination stains the very fabric of our nation, but HUD is especially focused on protecting the right of everyone to feel safe and secure in their homes, free from unwanted sexual harassment,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said last week at the unveiling
of the initiative.
“No person should have to tolerate unwanted sexual advances in order to keep a roof over his or her head. Part of our mission at HUD is to provide safe housing and we will remain diligent in this mission to protect those we serve.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said, “Sexual harassment in housing is illegal, immoral, and unacceptable. It is all too common today, as too many landlords, managers, and their employees attempt to prey on
vulnerable women. We will not hesitate to pursue these predators and enforce the law.”
How to get help
People who believe they may have been victims of sexual harassment in housing should call the Justice Department at 844-380-6178, send an email to fairhousing@ usdoj.gov, or call HUD at 800-669-9777. Anyone with information about any other housing discrimination, call 800896-7743.