The Violence Against Women and Justice Department Reauthorization Act 2005 (VAWA 2005) amended section 8(r) of the U.S. Housing Act to provide an exception to the prohibition against a family moving under the portability provisions in violation of the lease. VAWA provides that a family may receive a voucher and move in violation of the lease under portabiity procedures if the family has complied with all other obligations of the voucher program and has moved out of the assisted unit in order to protect the health or safety of an individual who is or has been the victim of domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking and who reasonably believed he or she was imminently threatened by harm from further violence if he or she remained in the assisted unit.
MSHDA will allow a family to move under portability if the only basis for the denial to port is that the family is violating the lease agreement. The family must provide a completed Certification of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence or Stalking (MSHDA 1635) or other acceptable documentation such as a a copy of police reports, to verify the family's claim that the request to port is prompted by incidences of abuse in the assisted unit.