Refugee searching for rental home rejected more than 100 times

Congolese refugee Jay Biayi applied for more than 100 rentals over almost six months but was rejected every time.His family moved to South Australia from the Democratic Republic of the Congo after obtaining refugee visas."Housing … that's very challenging because we spent close to six months just to get accommodation," he said."I went to over 100 house inspections, and our applications were rejected."After spending months of searching for a home, his family finally settled in Adelaide's northern suburbs.Mr Biayi's experience is not uncommon — national rental vacancy rates remain near historic lows, according to Domain's latest quarterly rent report.Adelaide's vacancy rate sat at 0.4 per cent in June, while the data also showed median rent for a house rose by 1.6 per cent to "a record" $650 per week.Migrants part of the workforce solutionMr Biayi has a social work qualification, but is developing his language skills at TAFE before he enters the workforce."As someone who is not working in Australia, finding a house is really, really challenging," he said.Mr Biayi said he hoped to find a job in social work, health or aged care — sectors which SA Multicultural Communities Council chief executive Helena Kyriazopoulos said were "desperate for workers".Helena Kyriazopoulos says helping migrants access affordable housing is important. (Supplied: MCCSA)"We shouldn't see people like Jay through the lens of a disadvantage, but through the lens of potential," she said."If we want people to contribute, we need to ensure they have a fair opportunity to establish themselves, and that starts with access to affordable housing."SA Council of Social Service chief executive Catherine Earl said "migrants are certainly part of the solution" to address worker shortages, but said housing was a "real problem"."It's really hard … landlords are able to pick and choose who they provide their property to," she said."If someone's got a restricted or very limited income, they may not be the most attractive person in terms of who's applying to move into that property, which is really unfortunate, especially for someone who's intending to enter the labour force."Catherine Earl says migrants can help address workforce shortages. (ABC News: Marco Catalano)Despite the long wait for a home, Mr Biayi and his family said they had been welcomed as newcomers in their new neighbourhood."The neighbours are all so happy and friendly, we really like it," he said.He encouraged people to learn from different cultures and backgrounds."Australia is a multicultural community … so approach other people, so it will be more useful and interesting," he said.Ms Kyriazopoulos said workers with diverse backgrounds were particularly important."They come in with an amazing wealth of cultural understanding and great experience they can actually share," she said."That's what we're asking for, in ensuring that we have the migrant population coming in, in servicing our industries."