23 Jul 2020

Woman says she was denied rental when using Māori name

From Checkpoint, 5:23 pm on 23 July 2020

A woman says she caught a racist landlord red-handed, after she was rejected for a property because she is Māori.

Te Iwi Kemp has applied for 10 Christchurch rentals in the past fortnight, but was told they were no longer available.

She then reapplied with a western name 'Maria' and three of the ten landlords got back to her.

When she told one of the landlords her real name, she says he laughed and said he didn't want 'her sort' in his house.

And as Māni Dunlop explains, it's not an isolated case.