According to the the report of the Ombudsman to the Parliament (2018), discrimination in relation to ethnic origin and citizenship occurs in resident selections even though it is prohibited in Finland. Helsinki, being one of the cities with the largest number of immigrants, it is important to address if the problem exists even though proving the existence of discrimination is an often difficult task. This project aims to provide the city with the scientific data on the issue.

Entire Helsinki Region

The project primarily targets the following groups to collect the data.
Individual landlords
Individual immigrant renters
Tenant associations
Landlord associations
For the panel discussion, it would target governmental and non-governmental organisations, and universities in addition the primary targets.

Proving the existence of discrimination is an often difficult task. The main objective of this project would be providing scientific research for the Helsinki City on whether or not and to what extent discrimination of immigrants occur in accessing the private rental housing market in the Helsinki region. It also examines rights of individual landlords, risks and concerns they may face in renting their houses to immigrants. The project includes preparing the survey questions in simple Finnish and different languages to reach as much immigrant communities as possible. Also the survey would be held both online and in print papers. A panel discussion with different stakeholders would be organised to discuss and analyse the the results of the survey. The results of the research would then help the city of Helsinki to bring more transparency in the private housing market and plan different programs and projects addressing the problems of both individual landlords and immigrant renters.

The funds would be spent on conducting an online and print survey n different languages targeting immigrants, gaining a scientific survey license for the period of conducting the survey, organising a panel discussion on the results of the survey and analyse the data with different stakeholders in the Housing industry as well as academicians from different universities, and a salary of project worker for the project period.

Nicehearts Ry will be involved in the process of marketing the proposal during the voting process and other assistance that would be beneficial to the project. We would use the Neighbourhood mothers network to prepare the survey questions in different languages as well as to reach the immigrant community for the survey. Also, an effort would be made to collaborate with different organisations that work on similar issues.
If possible, I would like to participate in the project.