Toronto man denied subsidized housing for not being Muslim finally finds home

 A year after he was told he was ineligible to live in a subsidized apartment because he is not Muslim, Austin Lewis has found another place to live.



“Most definitely if I had not found this place, I’d be in a terrible situation,” said Lewis, who uses a wheelchair because he cannot walk.



But the unit is expensive for Lewis; he pays $1,350 per month.



The 22-year-old lives alone and is not currently employed.



He says it’s very difficult to find an apartment that has an elevator with doors wide enough to accommodate his wheelchair and with proximity to public transit, a grocery store and pharmacy.



Lewis applied for affordable housing in Toronto, where it could take eight to 15 years for someone to be placed in an apartment, according to Paul Chisholm, project director at the City of Toronto.



In August of 2015, Lewis was among 11,000 people looking for subsidized housing who were removed from the waiting list at Ahmadiyya Abode of Peace, a 14-storey apartment building on Finch Avenue West. About 100 of the 166 residential rental units are designed as rent-geared-to-income.



On Jan. 1, 2015, the city of Toronto entered a five-year agreement with Ahmadiyya. City council agreed to establish a mandate to restrict tenancy to “members of the Muslim Jama’at.” The Ahmadiyya property is among those that was accessible to Lewis’s needs.




The property can legally discriminate against those who are not Muslim, according to Toronto city councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20/Trinity Spadina). In 2002, city council adopted a mandate allowing a total of eight residences geared to targeted groups, including buildings that house those of Macedonian, Chinese, Lithuanian and Greek backgrounds.



Lewis’s mother told Global News last year that the decision to exclude her son from the list was wrong.



“It’s wrong on every single level. This goes against everything Canada represents to me,” said Laura Whiteway, 51, of Port Perry, Ont.



Many Global News readers agreed.



“This is outrageously, absolutely disgusting” said one reader.



Another opined: “So very wrong, racist, and against everything Canadians stand for.”



But Lewis shrugged when asked if he feel badly he was taken off the list last year.



“It didn’t bother me much,” he said. “It’s their choice to do what they want to do.”



Lewis added he didn’t feel he was discriminated against because the city had given its permission to establish the designated subsidized housing.



After a year in transitional housing, Lewis is grateful to have found something permanent.



He is now looking at options for post-secondary education.