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Citation |
Barata PC, Stewart DE. Psychol. Women Q. 2010; 34(1): 43-55. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2010, Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35, American Psychological Association, Publisher SAGE Publications) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
Individual battered women have reported experiencing housing discrimination, but the extent of this problem has not been examined. This research used two experiments and a survey to determine if landlord discrimination could keep women from accessing rental units. In Study 1, a confederate asked 181 landlords about the availability of a rental unit in one of three living conditions (shelter, friends, no mention of current living conditions) and across two scenarios (does or does not have a child). Rental units were almost 10 times more likely to be available in the control condition compared to the shelter condition, χ2(1, N = 181) = 8.624, p = .003, and these results were not affected by whether or not the caller had a child, χ2(1, N = 181) = 0.214, p = .644. In Study 2, the confederate was employed and left a message on 92 landlords' answering machines in the same three living conditions. The hypothesized comparison between the shelter and the other two conditions combined was significant, χ2(1, N = 92) = 4.602, p = .032. Finally, in a telephone survey of 31 landlords, a substantial minority (23%) said they would not rent to a hypothetical battered woman. The results of our studies suggest that discrimination against battered women by landlords is a real problem that is likely contributing to the difficulties that women experience in finding safe and affordable long-term housing. |