In Canada, the trend toward deinstitutionalization did increase opportunities for independent living in the community, but it also was a factor in pushing a subset of people into precarious, street-involved, or outright unhoused conditions. In recent years, there has been a growth in support for innovative housing models, such as supportive living, that can help individuals with disabilities to live independently and fully participate in their communities.

Finding accessible accommodations, as permanent housing or during travel, can be challenging for a number of reasons. Some adaptive or accessible units have accessible drawers or showerheads which were then placed too high for someone in a wheelchair to access without another person.^[1] Labeling these spaces as accessible can be misleading if a person is expecting an independent experience. Relatedly, housing or accommodations may have accessible units, but how spaces are assigned can be inappropriate or create additional barriers. Rather than having catch-all categories (i.e. a spot to request an accessible unit), it can be beneficial to have fill-in-the-blank spaces or options in registration and application forms. For example, consider a hotel form that allows guests to select if they prefer to be near or far from the elevator. This allows those who need less sensory stimuli or someone who can only travel short distances to request a space without signing up for an accessible unit.

Much like other domains of innovation, accessible housing benefits from a convergence of technological and design frameworks:

• Universal design principles can be applied to housing to make it accessible and usable by people with disabilities, including features such as wide doorways, lower light switches, raised toilets, and bars on bathroom walls.
• Smart home technology can be used to control lighting, heating, and appliances with voice commands or through a smartphone app, making it easier for people with disabilities to live independently.
• Assistive technology – increasingly also able to integrate into smart home technology – includes such features as automatic doors, elevators, and voice-activated lighting. There are a range of technologies designed for older adults, such as various kinds of fall detectors and voice activated chatbots, that will enable aging in place for months or even years longer than would otherwise be practical.
• Universal home modification services provide people with disabilities with the support they need to modify their homes to meet their accessibility needs. These services typically involve a comprehensive assessment of a person’s home and can include modifications such as the installation of ramps, handrails, and accessible bathroom features.
• Even modular construction, a method of building that involves constructing pre-fabricated components off-site and then assembling them on-site, is becoming increasingly popular for accessible housing as it allows for quick and efficient construction of homes that can be customized to meet the needs of individual users.

Such innovations are helping to improve not only accessibility, but autonomy, making it easier for people with disabilities to live independently and participate more fully in their communities outside of congregate or institutional settings.

In 2019, Canada passed into law the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA). The NHSA notes that housing is essential to the inherent dignity and well-being of the person.  Despite this strategy, Canada has had a rapidly worsening housing crisis, fueled by inflation, high interest rates, financialization, a construction trades shortage, rising immigration numbers, and many other contributing factors.  New housing stock – not just social housing, but market rental, and entry-level owner-occupied, is also slow to get built at the scale required.

Often conversations about the accessibility of housing are focused on meeting basic needs and providing housing, without consideration of meeting diverse physical, cultural, or community needs, especially when more advanced adaptations are required.^[2] More organizations are turning their attention to creating housing that meets a variety of needs beyond those that specifically serve people with disabilities. For example, Calgary’s Horizon Housing, which provides a range of accessible housing for people with mental health and mobility challenges or low-income families and individuals, has continued to expand its portfolio of affordable, accessible, supportive housing.  It has also recently joined forces through a rare (in the nonprofit world) merger, in this case with Forward Housing.^[3]

However, it is essential to not rely just on nonprofit community organizations to fill the housing gap. Organizations that serve or are led by people with disabilities have valuable insights into how housing can and should be more accessible, but they should not be expected to carry the responsibility of providing accessible housing. As one conversation participant noted “there is such an increasing demand and the government is looking to nonprofits to provide solutions, but we would then have to compete in the market for things like land acquisition and construction and that is not our expertise.”^[4]  In 2022, Alberta’s Disability Advocate, in its report to the Minister of Seniors, Community, and Social Services, expressed concern over the lack of affordable housing that is also accessible.^[5]

SPOTLIGHT: Future of Home Solutions Lab

SPOTLIGHT: Housing for Health