LOS ANGELES—BuzzFeed is reporting that in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, some landlords are asking for sex from tenants who are unable to pay their rent.
According to reporter Amber Jamieson, a woman who was newly unemployed texted her landlord that she could pay her rent only after she was working again, and claimed her landlord replied by asking her to come over and spoon him instead. Another woman who was also unemployed due to the virus outbreak reportedly was looking for a more affordable apartment and texted a prospective landlord who in turn responded with a dick pic.
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The above complaints were just two of the 10 received by the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women after the coronavirus crisis began.
"We've received more cases in our office in the last two days than we have in the last two years," Khara Jabola-Carolus, the commission's executive director, told BuzzFeed.
More similar incidents are being reported nationwide, said Cheryl Ring, legal director at Opening Communities, a fair housing organization based in Chicago which has experienced a three-fold increasue in such incidents.
"Since this started, they [landlords] have been taking advantage of the financial hardships many of their tenants have in order to coerce tenants into a sex-for-rent agreement—which is absolutely illegal," Ring said.
The Fair Housing Act protects tenants from sexual discrimination by landlords and prospective landlords.
Still of Alex Blake taken from the Property Sex Twitter feed.
