Every human is entitled to housing and accommodation as part of their fundamental human rights and needs. While some residents of Canada enjoy this, the black community is socially exempted.
Canada’s Black population is currently experiencing discrimination from homeowners and landlords who prevent them from renting a home. Some blatantly refuse individuals with darker skin tones, while others raise the terms needed to rent the place, making it almost impossible for the average black person to sign an agreement.
According to a study by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, landlords often refuse people of African descent because some believe they are criminals or have too many children. These stereotypes harm the black population, preventing them from getting crucial accommodations for themselves and their family.
The situation becomes more tedious for immigrants as their post-arrival experience is riddled with fear, isolation, and anxiety. These individuals face discrimination from Landlords during the renting process as they encounter harassment and refusal for nothing more than their skin colour.
Factors like culture, economics, and language barriers also reinforce these feelings of inferiority in African immigrants, and many are yet to adjust to Canada’s language or ways of operation.
Housing is also scarce in Canada due to extremely low vacancy rates, insufficient social accommodation, and rent-geared-to-income housing. Therefore, getting a place to stay becomes more tricky for immigrants since the low vacancy rate results in higher rent fees.
Unfortunately, limited data that describes the racial background of renters makes it challenging to demonstrate and quantify the extent of discrimination that renters of colour experience in housing.
The absence of this race-based data hinders the efforts of advocates from these communities to bring about changes in housing policies and practices to address discrimination.
Nevertheless, the limited data available from the University of Toronto indicates that there has been an increase in household income levels since the 1970s. Unfortunately, individuals living in low-income neighbourhoods still earn incomes that are below the average.
Even in neighbourhoods where income levels rise, there tends to be a decrease in the percentage of immigrants residing there. Consequently, the likelihood of residents in these neighbourhoods being people of colour also decreases significantly due to their economic state and discrimination.
While Canada’s black population and dark-skinned immigrants can challenge unfair housing requirements and racism due to Canada’s housing rights and the country’s anti-discrimination policies, many do not.
One reason is the hassle associated with filing a complaint and going through the necessary processes before emerging victorious. By that time, money and time have been spent, which isn’t something someone with limited time to find housing desires.
Another reason many African Canadians don’t challenge unfair housing requirements because some are unaware of Canada’s housing rights. Others don’t have the connection to community advocates to help find better housing in their desired neighbourhood.
Ultimately, the deliberate rejection of people of colour from acquiring housing in Canada is an act of pure racism and discrimination developed by unhealthy stereotypes of the black community. Such situations push these desperate individuals to low-income areas since Landlords raise the already high housing cost beyond the financial capacity of black renters.
Such acts of racism require additional efforts from the Canadian Government to implement a system to report discrimination regarding housing with quick resolution. Further action is needed to reform landlords to service people of colour according to the standard for Landlords, irrespective of what stereotypes they believe.
