A Halifax family says they’ve been looking for an apartment for nearly a year, but have really focused on finding a place in the past four months.
However, so far they’ve come out empty handed. In 2019, Halifax’s rental vacancy rate dropped to a new low of one percent – lower than cities like Toronto and Vancouver. But Mitchell Doubleday says the vacancy rate isn’t their biggest challenge.
READ MORE: Halifax’s rental vacancy is now below Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver: study
Doubleday says they’ve sent out dozens of messages to ads posted on Kijiji but keep getting turned down.
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“They always seem to ask before anything who’s occupying the unit,” he said.
“When we mentioned that we have a toddler, they usually respond with ‘this is a quiet building’, or ‘oh sorry we’re not looking for children.'”
In Nova Scotia, family status is a protected characteristic under the Human Rights Act, so it is illegal for landlords to deny individuals solely because they have children. But Doubleday says even when he’s pointed that out to potential landlords it hasn’t helped.
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“Some people just try to say oh no it’s only this floor, when they’re caught they usually have some excuse. It’s never an apology,” said Doubleday.
“It just kind of demoralizes us, it makes us feel we’re at a disadvantage because at a young age we decided to start a family.”
Last year the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission put out a release saying they had a recent spike in inquiries from residents with children reportedly being denied rental accommodations. The release reminded landlords that “telling someone you do not rent to families is a violation of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act.
But despite an increase of inquiries, the commission received only three official complaints relating to family status in the past year.
While the commission could not comment about specific cases, in a statement they say “often these issues can be resolved between parties through education on the rights and responsibility of both landlords and the public.”
READ MORE: Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission issues reminder to retailers about anti-discrimination law
But Doubleday says that’s not enough and there needs to be consequences.
“There definitely needs to be some sort of punishment to landlords who do this because right now there’s nothing stopping them,” he said.
Doubleday has been collecting evidence against landlords who have discriminated against his family. He is planning on making his own complaint to the commission and is encouraging others to do the same.
“There’s not enough complaints being put in,” he said. “It’s not only us, it’s not just my wife and I, we’ve talked to other people who have the same issue.”
The commission says they do encourage anyone who believes they have been discriminated against to contact them.
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