The right to housing for people with disabilities: Data gaps

We are monitoring the right to adequate housing for people with disabilities in Canada.

27% of Canadians have a disability. That’s about 8 million people.^{Footnote 1}

We are missing a lot of information about the housing situations of people with disabilities. This information is not collected through national surveys.

• Some groups are often left out of surveys. For example:

  • People living in institutions like group homes, hospitals, and prisons^{Footnote 2}

  • People experiencing homelessness and hidden homelessness^{Footnote 3}

  • Children with disabilities^{Footnote 4}

  • People living in Northern and rural areas^{Footnote 5}

  • Indigenous people living on reserves^{Footnote 6}

• Surveys don’t always ask about disabilities in the same way.^{Footnote 7}

• Some types of disabilities aren’t counted as disabilities.^{Footnote 8}

• Some surveys focus mostly on people with physical disabilities.^{Footnote 9}

• Some surveys don’t even ask people if they have disabilities.^{Footnote 10}

• Survey information isn’t always broken down into different groups, like by race and sexual orientation.^{Footnote 11}

Why this matters:

These gaps make it hard to:

• Know how well people with disabilities are doing

• Track changes over time

• Compare information in different areas

• Know which groups face the most barriers

• Find ways to make things better

Solutions:

• All people with disabilities should be included in national surveys

• All surveys should ask about disabilities in the same way

• All information should be broken down into different groups (“disaggregated”)

• People with disabilities should help create surveys. They should also help collect and analyze survey information.