The Metro Vancouver Regional District, also known as Greater or Metro Vancouver, is a modern and well-developed area with more than two million Canadians from various ethnic groups living there. Despite the intention to create favorable conditions for all citizens, sometimes, it is hard to ignore ongoing unethical practices and failures to meet the basic needs of ordinary people. For example, Lewis et al. (2023) report that Black communities in Metro Vancouver continuously face a disproportionate burden in accessing sustainable housing, leading to increased homelessness rates and misunderstandings.

Nowadays, it is expected to provide people with equal opportunities to earn a living and have a safe house where personal and professional needs can be properly met. However, housing affordability has been a significant issue in many Canadian areas, as well as worldwide. Real estate corruption might gain different forms, and business owners have access to multiple ways to launder their illegal money, provide services to rich people, and neglect the requests of families with low or middle incomes. Although this unethical failure is never discussed aloud, it should no longer be ignored in Metro Vancouver.

Summary of the Unethical Practice

To summarize the progress of the chosen unethical practice, the current facts and statistics from local reports and observations should be mentioned. According to Lewis et al. (2023), Blacks comprise about 1.2% of the British Columbia sector, including the Metro Vancouver area, which is approximately 62,000 people. Renting one-bedroom apartments costs more than $2,500, which is too expensive for the local market, with no signs of decreasing or alternative options (Lewis et al., 2023). As a result, more than 70% of monthly income is spent on rent, but more than 20% cannot afford timely payment each time (Lewis et al., 2023).

Housing discrimination bothers many Black citizens because house owners are ready to find a variety of reasons to reject rent or give no explanations at all. During the last several decades, the government enacted several measures to control real unethical estate policies, but vacancy decontrol regulations allowed landowners to increase rent payments with time (Lewis et al., 2023). Demands and complaints of Black renters are commonly neglected or poorly recognized, strengthening unethical practices in the area.

Ethical Analysis: Applying Ethical Theory to Explain the Issue

Real estate corruption and housing discrimination should be defined as unethical because of the principles defined by utilitarianism. The main idea of this ethical theory is to choose the path in which the greatest good can be achieved (Demirci, 2019). Utilitarian theorists like Bentham or Mill believed that human actions are right when they promote happiness following the reason-based approach (Demirci, 2019).

On the one hand, increased rent prices can make landowners happy and satisfied with the outcomes they can achieve. On the other hand, the necessity to prevent homelessness, the inability to maintain a work-life balance, and increased discrimination cases are the negative outcomes of the ongoing practice. People never reach a happy world until such issues as poverty, homelessness, and racism are around. Therefore, using utilitarianism as the ethical theory for consideration, it is possible to say that housing discrimination in Metro Vancouver is a serious unethical failure.