PEOPLE OF AFRICAN descent and holders of refugee status are increasingly facing barriers when looking for private rented accommodation, according to the Vincentian Refugee Centre (VRC) in Dublin.
The VRC, a drop-in advice centre that provides information on “all types of integration queries”, has noted apparent discrimination of new refugees and people with residency status by landlords.
Speaking ahead of a Dublin seminar on migrants’ access to private rented accommodation, VRC’s housing and integration officer Danielle McLaughlin told Metro Eireann: “I am often asked questions about the client before I can arrange a viewing such as ‘Where are they from?’, ‘Are they from the area?’, ‘Where are they living now?’, ‘Have you vetted them?’, ‘Tell them to call me themselves’.”
She continued: “For some time when advocating for clients, we refrained from mentioning the name of our service as we felt the word ‘refugee’ was off-putting to landlords as they may associate connotations with the image of refugees.
“We felt we had to do this as we needed to house a client as soon as possible and to protect them from questions about that aspect of their life.”
McLaughlin said that while advocating on behalf of clients she had “witnessed several occasions of explicit refusal of a person based on their ethnicity or country of origin.”
Another key issue she noted is clients having difficulty communicating with landlords due to insufficient English.
However, she added that even clients with a good level of English “struggle to understand the rental sector” while another major issue is finding a place where rent allowance is accepted.
Housing is one of the most dominant issues which clients present for VRC assistance with. Over 1,000 queries in relation to housing – from more than 930 individuals – were recorded this year until October, according to the VRC, and of these approximately 220 people have visited the centre specifically looking for assistance regarding private rented accommodation.
The VRC is calling for Government support in rehousing and settlement for “vulnerable people coming out of the asylum process”. It also wants the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) to record cases of ethnic discrimination and “co-operate with the monitoring of the implementation of inclusive practices”.
Catherine Lynch of the Irish Anti-Racism Network, who also spoke at the seminar, said the role of letting agencies must be scrutinised.
“Discrimination is against the law. We need greater awareness of this fact and stronger penalties to discourage landlords and letting agencies from discriminating,” she said, adding that racist incidents can be reported at www.enarireland.org while the Equality Authority (www.equality.ie) can offer advice on rights.
The seminar was organised by Dublin City Council in association with the VRC.
