Monitoring the right to housing for people with disabilities

About us

The Canadian Human Rights Commission monitors the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in Canada. We are responsible for tracking how Canada is putting the CRPD into action. Learn more about our CRPD work.

The Federal Housing Advocate helps promote and protect the right to housing in Canada. The Advocate monitors housing issues. This includes barriers to housing for people with disabilities. The Advocate's Office is based at the Commission. Learn more about their work.

The Commission and the Advocate are working together. We are monitoring the right to housing for people with disabilities in Canada.

The right to housing for people with disabilities

Access to adequate housing is a human right. It means more than just having somewhere to live. It means having a home that is safe and secure. It means being able to live in peace and dignity.

For people with disabilities, it also means getting to choose where to live. It means having a home that is accessible. It also means having access to supports to be able to live independently.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) says that people with disabilities should have equal access to housing. It says people with disabilities have the right to live independently and be included in their communities. Canada has agreed to follow the CRPD.

Canada agrees that everyone has the right to housing that is safe, affordable and inclusive. This right is included in the National Housing Strategy Act.

But people with disabilities in Canada face many barriers to housing. Many people with disabilities are forced to live in institutions. They can't get the support they need to live independently. People can't find safe and accessible homes. Many people are struggling to pay their rent. People often experience homelessness because of these barriers.

Some people even lose their lives. Some people with disabilities are turning to Medical Assistance in Dying because they can't access housing and supports that meet their needs. This needs to change.

We want to better understand this problem to help find solutions. We are collecting information about the housing situation of people with disabilities in Canada. We want to know what it's like to be a person with a disability who is trying to get their housing needs met. We also want to know what steps Canada is taking to improve this situation. We will use this information to advocate for change.

If you have experienced homelessness or had problems with housing, you can tell the Advocate about your situation. This information can help us better understand housing issues in Canada.

Our monitoring framework

We developed a system to monitor the right to housing for people with disabilities in Canada. This system is called our monitoring framework. It explains what we will monitor. It lists the information we will collect and analyze. It is based on the OPERA framework for monitoring economic and social rights.

In 2022, we met with a group of people with disabilities, their families and caregivers. We wanted to learn about their housing experiences. Some people had problems finding a place to live. Some had problems with their homes. We thank everyone for giving us the chance to learn from them. We used what we learned to develop our monitoring framework.

You can read our report, What we learned: Housing for people with disabilities, to learn more about what they told us.

We created our framework with people with disabilities and experts. We want our work to be inclusive. We know some people with disabilities face more barriers to housing. For example, people can face barriers because of their disabilities, their sex, and their race. This is called “intersectionality”. We want to track this.

Types of information

We are collecting and analysing three types of information. These types of information are called indicators. We are collecting information about outcomes, policy efforts and government resources.

• Outcomes: This includes information about the housing situations of people with disabilities in Canada. For example: How many people with disabilities have housing that meets their accessibility needs?
• Policy efforts: This includes information about laws, policies, and programs that affect housing for people with disabilities. For example: Which provinces and territories are taking steps to move people with disabilities out of institutions?
• Resources: This includes information about how much money governments are spending to improve housing for people with disabilities. For example: How much money did governments spend on affordable housing for people with disabilities?

We will disaggregate information as much as possible. That means we will break down information into different groups. For example, we will break down information by:

• Province and territory
• Disability type
• Age
• Race
• Gender

Areas

We are focusing on eleven areas. We chose these areas because they are key parts of the right to housing for people with disabilities. They are based on the United Nations' definition of the right to adequate housing. They are also based on the CRPD.

We are focusing on these areas:

• Institutionalization: Are people with disabilities being forced to live in institutions (like group homes, hospitals and long-term care homes)?
• Homelessness: Are people with disabilities at greater risk of experiencing homelessness? Are homeless shelters and services meeting their needs?
• Discrimination and dignity: Are people with disabilities experiencing housing discrimination? Are they able to live with dignity?
• Accessibility: Do people with disabilities have housing that meets their accessibility needs?
• Supports and services: Do people with disabilities have the supports they need to live independently (like help to cook, clean and bathe)? Do they have equal access to basic services (like safe drinking water and Internet access)?
• Affordability: Do people with disabilities face financial barriers to housing? Are they spending too much money on housing?
• Security of tenure (stability): Do people with disabilities have stable homes? Are they at risk of being forced out of their homes? Do they have access to justice?
• Safety: Do people with disabilities feel safe in their homes and communities? Have they experienced violence or abuse at home?
• Habitability (housing conditions): Do people with disabilities live in homes that are big enough? Are their homes in good condition, and free of health risks like bugs and mold?
• Location: Are people with disabilities satisfied with the neighborhoods they live in? Do they live near their workplaces and the services they need (like transportation, schools and medical clinics)?
• Cultural adequacy: Do people with disabilities have homes that reflect their cultural identities and traditions?

Indicators

To learn more about the information we collect in each area, select an area from the following list to find the corresponding indicators and results. You will also find links to relevant international law sources, including the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD).

The data will be broken down into different groups (disaggregated) where possible, including by disability type, age, race, sex, geography, and other identities.

Institutionalization

Homelessness

Discrimination and dignity

Accessibility

Supports and services

Affordability

Security of tenure

Safety

Habitability

Location

Cultural Adequacy

Results

Our early results show that people with disabilities in Canada face many barriers to housing. They did worse in every area of inadequate housing and homelessness than people without disabilities.

The results help to understand the current housing situations of people with disabilities in Canada. They also show where Canada needs to do better.

Here are some early results from our monitoring work.

Homelessness

• People with disabilities were four times more likely to experience homelessness, and more than two times more likely to experience hidden homelessness.
• They were also more likely to experience homelessness because of violence – 53% of people with disabilities who had experienced homelessness reported that it was because of violence, compared with 36% of people without disabilities.
• Read more results on homelessness.

Affordability

• People with disabilities were more likely to live in unaffordable housing than people without disabilities.
• The results show that 35% of renters with disabilities lived in unaffordable housing, while the rate for renters without disabilities was 25%.
• People said they don’t have enough money left over for basic needs, like food and medication.
• Read more results on housing affordability.

Core housing need

• People with disabilities were almost two times more likely to live in core housing need, especially renters with disabilities. In 2022, 27% of the population had a disability, but 42% of renters in core housing need had a disability.
• People told us their homes are too small, some had pests like bugs, and some needed repairs. This is making their health and well-being worse.
• Read more results on core housing need.

Accessibility

• Many people with disabilities don’t have the physical aids they need in their homes. It is hard to know the real numbers, since many people with disabilities were not asked about their accessible housing needs.
• People told us that housing is built in a way that excludes many people with disabilities.
• Read more results on accessibility.

Data gaps

• A lot of key information is missing about the housing situations of people with disabilities. This makes it hard to know how well people with disabilities are doing.
• People living in institutions are often left out of surveys.
• Surveys don’t always ask people if they have disabilities.
• Read more results on data gaps.

Solutions

• We have ideas about how to make housing better for people with disabilities. We think governments should do these things:
  • Give more money and support to people with disabilities.
  • Make housing more accessible.
  • Make housing rules and programs inclusive.
• Read more about the calls to action.

Next steps

We will use this information to advocate for change.

We will share our results with governments and people who make decisions about housing. We will ask them to take action to make housing better for people with disabilities.

We encourage people with disabilities to use and share this information too. We should all work together to improve the housing situations of people with disabilities in Canada.

This monitoring project will act as an important accountability tool to keep track of whether Canada is making progress on its human rights commitments. Canada has recognized housing as a human right for all in the National Housing Strategy Act, and committed to upholding the rights of people with disabilities in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

These results are a starting point. More work is needed to address these issues.

Publications

• What we learned: Housing for people with disabilities – HTML
• What we learned: Housing for people with disabilities – PDF
• The right to housing for people with disabilities: Monitoring framework – PDF