TORONTO – Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to an Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) report outlining the need for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the housing market.
“I urge the government to take action to address systemic racism in the housing market.
And I want to applaud OREA’s report that investigates and documents discrimination in the housing and rental markets.
We all know that systemic racism and discrimination exists, but to be able to document it and put forward recommendations in a way that OREA has is crucial to bringing diversity, inclusion and equity into the real estate market.
Housing is a human right. But the reality is that rental discrimination is making it harder for Black and Indigenous people to find a place to call home.
The report, Fighting for Fair Housing, which can be found here, recommends a change in the code of ethics for realtors, changes to the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act and to the Landlord Tenant Board to combat systemic discrimination, and programs to facilitate attainable home ownership for disadvantaged communities.
I will push the government to put mechanisms in place to prevent systemic discrimination from happening, and to make it easy for people to report and seek redress when they do face this type of racism.”