In a rare case, the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has ordered a Toronto landlord pay a young woman $10,000 for denying her an apartment because she was under the age of 18.

The young woman was 17, a minor, when the complaint was filed. The ruling issued July 24 made her name anonymous , referring to her only as the random initials “A.B.”

Thaila-Paige Dixon-Eeet, agreed to be identified in the Star, however, in the hopes that telling her story could help other young people.

“I want youth to know there’s options out there and I want them to know what their rights actually are,” Dixon-Eeet, who is now 20, said Monday. “I didn’t really know. I was ready to give up. I don’t want any landlord to do this to anybody.”

Dixon-Eeet was 17 back in January 2011, when she applied for a bachelor apartment at 500 Dawes Rd., which has a reputation as one of the worst apartment buildings in Toronto. It was the subject of a sweep by Mayor Rob Ford , local councillor Janet Davis and city staff last fall, when residents described problems with mice, broken heating, fire damage, mould, garbage and a litany of other complaints.

The apartment cost about $680 and despite the building’s notoriety, Dixon-Eeet felt she knew the area and was desperate to escape her environment and find a stable apartment. In 2011, the Toronto Children’s Aid Society was financially supporting her, helping her find affordable housing and ready to pay her rent by direct deposit.

A superintendent told Dixon-Eeet the building had a policy of not renting to anyone under 18. Under Ontario law, 16 and 17-year-olds can sign leases. Once denied, she was advised by her case worker to seek advice from the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA), which dedicates itself to ending housing discrimination.

Carolyn Goodman and her company Havcare Investments Inc. were ordered to pay $10,000 to Dixon-Eeet for injury to her “dignity, feelings and self-respect.” At the tribunal, Goodman denied the allegations and said the apartment was not vacant, a claim the tribunal did not accept. Goodman did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Losing the bachelor apartment at 500 Dawes Rd. meant Dixon-Eeet was forced to stay with an abusive boyfriend and drop out of high school, she said. She had been a Crown ward since she was 13 years old, had been couch-surfing and living in group homes, and was struggling to finish her studies.

After leaving the boyfriend later in 2011, Dixon-Eeet became homeless again for six months — couch surfing and staying with friends, not on the streets, but without a place of her own — before finding a place. She now has an apartment in Scarborough and is starting to work toward her high school equivalency certificate. She has dreams of becoming a tattoo artist and says she wants to take college courses in both arts and child and youth work.

“From a subjective perspective, the applicant was one of the most vulnerable types of individuals in society and whose odds were pretty much stacked against her,” adjudicator Alison Renton wrote in her ruling.

Only six per cent of Ontario’s human rights complaints concern housing, according to the Human Right Legal Support Centre. And the number of complaints for age discrimination filed by young people is “infinitesimally small,” said spokeswoman Jennifer Ramsay.

“When you’re desperate to find a place to live and you experience discrimination, usually your No. 1 priority is finding another place to live,” said lawyer Megan Evans Maxwell, who represented Dixon-Eeet at the time through CERA and now works for the Human Rights Legal Support Centre.

Goodman uses several names as a landlord: Carolyn Goodman, which is her legal name, Carolyn Krebs, which is her married name, and Marian Linton, which is an assumed name, according to the ruling. Goodman’s company owns 11 buildings in Toronto, Maxwell said.

Renton said in her ruling she did not find Goodman to be “a credible or reliable witness.” Goodman claimed the Krebs and Linton names were “alter egos” and not false identities.

The adjudicator also found Goodman had tried to influence a witness to deny Dixon-Eeet’s age was a factor, and that she had fabricated evidence, including the application of the purported tenant who Goodman claimed had already rented the room.

“The Tribunal has recognized that this is one of the gravest abuses a party can commit because it depends upon the individuals who testify before the Tribunal to tell the truth,” Renton wrote.

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Goodman was also ordered to develop a human rights policy specific to rental housing for 500 Dawes Rd., to post the policy and the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Code in the rental office, and to provide human rights training to anyone who shows prospective tenants units in the building.

She has 30 days from the ruling date to pay the $10,000.