During the past year, I’ve written a lot of stories about battles between landlords and tenants.
One thing I haven’t written about is how some landlords are discriminating against potential tenants during the application process.
So many renters have told me about being racially profiled and then rejected by landlords because of their ethnicity. A lot of renters I’ve interviewed say they have been asked over the phone or via text message about what their racial background is.
That’s not actually allowed, but some do it anyways and tenants go along because they are desperate to find a place to live.
I’m going to tread carefully because I don’t want bad-faith people to use this as excuse to slam any particular race, but it’s not just white people doing this. I’ve interviewed renters who were black, white, Arab and Asian who say that landlords of various racial groups have either disappeared right after finding out their race, or basically implied that they prefer to rent to someone with the same racial background.
I was reminded of this when one of my reporters recently wrote about how she was asked for her ethnic background – she’s white and from Albania – only to immediately get blocked by the landlord.
"This is pure racial profiling," said Lisa (she didn’t want her last name used), who said this shouldn't be happening in Canada where people are supposed to be tolerant of people from different backgrounds. You can look at the screenshot attached to this column to see how the conversation went.
This case was in Coquitlam, but it’s happening in Burnaby, according to more than 10 people I’ve interviewed in the past year.
So, what do you do if this happens to you?
Tenants do have recourse and can hold landlords accountable, according to the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre.
While the Residential Tenancy Act is the main piece of legislation that governs tenants’ and landlords’ rights and responsibilities, section 10 of the BC Human Rights Code provides tenants with additional protections concerning discrimination in tenancies.
A landlord may not refuse to rent to you because of your:
- race
- colour
- ancestry
- place of origin
- religion
- marital status
- family status
- physical or mental disability
- sex
- sexual orientation
- age (if 19 or older)
- lawful source of income
According to TRAC, if you think you may have been discriminated against, you can contact the BC Human Rights Clinic at 1-855-685-6222.
Of course, proving this is a different matter, especially if it’s a verbal conversation, but at least there are some options out there.
- With additional reporting by Diane Strandberg
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
