Landlord discriminated against potential tenant on assistance, human rights panel finds

A 35-year-old woman who was the first to apply and put down a deposit for an apartment was discriminated against, the Manitoba Human Rights Commission said Tuesday following a ruling from an adjudication panel.

The commission said the complainant, referred to as A.B., provided references to a landlord and told them her rent would be provided directly through the Employment and Income Assistance – Disability program.

When she followed up a few weeks later, she was told the suite was no longer available, and the landlord didn’t rent to people on EIA unless someone co-signed the lease. The commission said she hadn’t been told that prior to applying.

At the adjudication panel hearing, the commission “argued that access to housing is a human right of all citizens and that the right to be treated on the basis of one’s own merit is protected by provincial human rights law.”

It said rejecting applications from people who state their income is less than 30 or 40 per cent of what rent costs without considering their other means of paying “imposes an unreasonable barrier on people who receive EIA, often including persons with disabilities, newcomers and those who are otherwise marginalized.”

The commission said the adjudicator agreed that landlords should take more than just rent-to-income ratios into account when assessing a potential tenant’s ability to pay.

“Instead, a landlord must select or reject prospective tenants based on non-discriminatory criteria on an individualized basis using application forms, interviews and reference checks,” said the adjudicator, Dan Manning, in a news release from the commission.

A.B. said for low income tenants, relying strictly on rent-to-income ratios to find an appropriate rental leaves you with few options, “and what little is available is derelict.”

“In a market where there are few vacancies and you have a minuscule budget, you either spend more, or you'll be without a home. When landlords use these ratios strictly, it's no longer a suggestion, but a rule that locks people out", she said.

The commission said human rights tribunals in Ontario and Quebec have also found the practice of relying on rent-to-income rations to be discriminatory.