COLUMBUS — Columbus City Council took up proposed housing protections on Wednesday, Oct. 14, that would let domestic violence survivors leave an unsafe home without being punished for breaking a lease, as police data shows domestic calls on pace to top 30,000 in the city this year.
Councilmember Tiara Ross, who chairs the council’s Housing, Homelessness and Building Committee, held the Oct. 14 hearing on changes to the city’s housing code. As proposed, a survivor could end a rental agreement without lease-breaking fees or continuing rent on a home they can no longer safely occupy.
Ross said the city’s responsibility continues after a survivor decides to leave, and she acknowledged the change would not by itself solve domestic violence — describing it as one step in the right direction. The proposal would also extend to people fleeing sexual assault and stalking, not only domestic violence.
Survivor testimony at the hearing explained why housing is often the deciding factor. Diana Williams, founder of Ohio Women Against Domestic Violence and herself a survivor, told council members that finding stable housing was one of the hardest parts of escaping her abuser, recalling an eviction, sleeping on floors with her children, and identity theft that damaged her credit and made renting again harder.
The Columbus discussion is happening alongside a state-level effort. House Bill 855, the proposed Ohio Safe Homes Act from Reps. Michele Grim of Toledo and Melanie Miller of Ashland, would let victims of domestic violence or sexual assault end a rental agreement without penalty statewide, and would bar landlord retaliation for doing so. An earlier version of the idea, introduced in 2023, did not advance in the legislature; the new bill’s bipartisan sponsorship may improve its chances.
The scale of the problem framed the whole hearing. Columbus police had received more than 21,800 domestic violence or domestic dispute calls as of Aug. 31, according to the department’s Domestic Violence Unit, and Lt. Jason Garner told council he expects that total to pass 30,000 by the end of the year. Domestic violence killings continue to account for roughly 30 percent of the city’s homicides even as overall homicides fall.
Statewide, the Ohio Domestic Violence Network counted 157 domestic violence-related homicides in the year from July 2024 through June 2025. Police officials at the hearing were candid that most domestic violence happens behind closed doors, which limits what enforcement alone can prevent — one reason council members and advocates are looking at housing rules, which can remove a practical barrier at the moment a survivor is ready to leave.
The hearing fell during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. No final council vote was taken on Oct. 14; the proposal remains in the committee process, where members will weigh the testimony, the wording of the housing-code change, and how it would interact with the state bill if both move forward. NewsForce247 will follow the proposal as it advances.
