"Racism Report 2004" is available for free - Zara

Page 26 Cases: Housing Racism Report 2004
134 Mr. W. contacts the Wiener Mietwohnzentrale (a subletting agency) to register his flat for subletting. He is
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asked whether he wanted to exclude certain nationalities. When he wants to know what this was about and mentions
that such exclusions would violate the Law against Discrimination, he’s told that the agency just wanted to avoid possible
conflicts between tenant and landlord from the start. Many landlords had come across problems with Africans
for instance because the flats were often stormed by the police and damaged. Therefore the Mietwohnzentrale asked
landlords about “undesired” nationalities in order to save Africans looking for housing from conflicts. Mr. W. asks
ZARA for documentation of the circumstances.
135 Ms. and Mr. E. come to ZARA for counselling because of their neighbours’ children. They keep insulting
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Mr. E. by calling him “Nigger”. The couple also makes a report against a teenager who aimed his football on purpose
in the direction of Ms. E. and hit her in the head. ZARA contacts the relevant District Support Centre which agrees
to take on the matter between the E’s and the neighbours’ children.
136 Ms. S. and her partner Mr. K. who is originally from Africa contact ZARA because of ongoing racist discrim-
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ination. The couple lives in a council block in the 15the district in Vienna. The tenants’ representative who obviously
can’t come to terms with having a black African living in “her” house is mobilising the other tenants against the two.
Eviction reasons such as “inappropriate behaviour” and “annoyance due to noise” are made up to get Ms. S. and Mr.
K. out of the building. In the end eviction procedures are started at the District Court; the decision is still pending.
137 Ms. T. phones ZARA and reports the following: Mr. A., an African acquaintance of hers, has lived in Vienna
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for the past 6 years and worked as an artist. From one day to the next he is told to move out of his apartment. The
reason given by the district’s officer in charge is that he wasn’t wanted for being an African. Neither Ms. T. nor Mr.
A. himself want ZARA to intervene but merely ask to document the case.
138 Mr. B. contacts ZARA because his stepson who is of African origin is threatened with eviction. Mr. B. is
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the main tenant of the flat, his stepson the subtenant. In the eviction letter it says that Mr. B. wasn’t allowed to
have subtenants and that in addition the apartment was apparently shared by “several Africans”. Mr. B. suspects racist
motives. The ZARA member of staff suggests that Mr. B. contacts the property management and that he should
refer back to ZARA to discuss further proceedings in case the property management didn’t co-operate. Mr. B. doesn’t
contact ZARA again.
139 Mr. O. from Nigeria and Ms. K. from Austria are married and had just found an apartment. A date for
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moving in is arranged with the landlady, they are given the keys to the flat. On the day of moving the couple find
that the lock had been changed and that they can’t enter the flat. Ms. K. contacts the landlady who tells her that
she hadn’t known that her husband was black. Without informing the couple she’d involved a lawyer and deposited
the keys to the new lock with him. When they arrive at the lawyer’s office to pick up the keys, the lawyer’s secretary
informs them that “90% of black Africans are the scum of Africa!” The landlady who is also there repeats this statement.
In the subsequent meeting with the lawyer the landlady states that she’d made very bad experiences with
previous tenants. They had been Africans and were all dealing with drugs. She goes on to explain that she wasn’t
racist; she’d studied in Kenya for six years but her fellow students there remained “at home in Kenya to build up
the country”. After the couple hand copies of their documents to the landlady’s lawyer they are given the keys. Ms.
K. and Mr. O. are very desperate and frustrated because wherever they’ve lived so far in Austria they’ve come across
massive problems with both landlords and neighbours. A ZARA member of staff gives the couple the details of a
lawyer working with ZARA and advises them of their legal possibilities. Ms. K. and Mr. O., however, merely want their
case to be documented.
140 While visiting an apartment in August 2004 with a real estate broker Ms. X. comes across a landlady who
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upon seeing her dark-skinned companion says: “We don’t let to foreigners!” When her outrage has calmed down, Ms.
X. contacts the manager of the real estate company and reports the incident to him. He is grateful for the report and
says that in future the company will refuse to broker flats for this landlady.
141
Mr. A. is of Arabic origin and has lived in a council flat for years. A neighbour has been harassing Mr. A.
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and his family both verbally and physically for months. He calls the police for no reason claiming that the children
were too noisy. He grabs Mr. A. by the neck and threatens to kill him. He keeps ringing Mr. A’s intercom-bell screaming
into the microphone: “Foreigners out”. One day Mr. A. finds a letter on top of his push chair in the stairway with
the following words (translator’s note: the German original is full of grammatical and spelling mistakes): “You haven’t
apologised until this day. Through my lawyer I’ve started eviction proceedings against you, have a look at the code of
law, you not only insulted me but the Austrian Republic by shame of the nation and stop the noise molestation then