New research reveals widespread racism facing Victoria’s culturally diverse tenants

New research from the University of Melbourne suggests more than half of non-white or non-white tenants in Victoria are being refused a lease because of their race or ethnicity.

Survey and focus group research by the university and not-for-profit Tenants Victoria found 61 per cent of culturally and linguistically diverse people have been refused a home because of their racial or ethnic background.

Melbourne native Habib Ahmadi’s job is to find homes for refugees.

A person’s non-English name and city of birth are details that often completely shut the door to refugees looking for a home. A refugee with no rental history also often becomes a factor, Mr. Ahmadi said. Her job is to advocate for newcomers and help real estate agents ensure their clients are good tenants.

Mr Ahmadi told NewsWire: “This report by Tenants Victoria looked at racism in the rental market. As someone working in the industry, I experience this every day.”

“A lot of times when they see that the names are (culturally) different… people may be from a certain background and then they don’t give us a house at all.

“There are some real estate agents who understand us and are very cooperative with us.”

Mr Ahmadi said racial discrimination in the rental market was widespread but hidden.

“It’s confidential. Legally, no one can say, ‘No, I can’t give you the house because you’re black or because you’re from a certain culture.’ But there are always workarounds that allow them to essentially say ‘no,'” Ahmedi said.

The plight of a Somali family who has had nowhere to live for more than six months is one of the events that still haunts him.

Good times at work are when Mr. Ahmadi talks to a landlord or agent who wants to house a family belonging to a particular persecuted minority group, sometimes without charging rent.

Many of the people Mr. Ahmadi works with are Iraqi, Syrian, Yemeni, Iranian, Pakistani, South American or Myanmar.

Research published this weekend found that 64 per cent of people have seen or heard of experiencing racism when trying to hire someone. 51 percent of people said they were prevented from buying or renting a home in a particular neighborhood, and 50 percent said they were asked offensive or discriminatory questions when applying for housing.

Most often, 60 percent of the time, this discrimination came from a real estate agent or property manager. A third of discriminatory actions came from private landlords, 20 percent from neighbors and 16 percent from service personnel.

Approximately 9 percent of those surveyed chose to change their names on applications.

The overwhelming majority, more than 75 percent, reported that these discriminatory incidents made them feel hopeless or powerless.

More than half say they have confronted their abusers, but 26 percent don’t even want repairs or maintenance done on their homes.

Alongside the analysis by University of Melbourne researchers, government-funded charity Tenants Victoria also publicized the surveys and convened focus groups.

Tenants Victoria chief executive Jennifer Beveridge said the research “somewhat rigorously confirms” what people from multicultural backgrounds have been saying for years.

“It’s confusing and I think it’s a stark reminder that we all come from somewhere else, except for Aboriginal people,” he said.

“We all came here, feeling a bit foreign, trying to settle down in a new country, put down roots and make a life for ourselves. And that’s how people do it; they find a home and then they can build their lives around that.”

“We can dress this country up in a lot of different ways and put a different language on it, but as you said, this is a country built on the immigrant experience and the efforts that people bring with them when they settle in this new place.”

The persistent nature of ignorance towards different cultural groups was clear to Ms. Beveridge.

“I’ve been working for 30 years, there are so many different groups of people who are new arrivals of the day, and I think they’re the ones who find it the hardest to settle in,” he said.

“Once a particular ethnic group settles in, they become part of the community, and we see the most discrimination among the newest arrivals.”

The latest government data shows 16,750 refugee and humanitarian visas were issued by the Australian government in the 2023/24 financial year; Of these, 6,000 were directed at people under the age of 17.

More than 6,900 of that year’s food purchases came from Afghanistan, 2,804 from Syria, and nearly 1,800 from Iraq and Myanmar.

Fewer than 1,200 visas were issued to people from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In total, about 830 people came from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.