DEKYAS NEWS World Breaking News and Trusted Source
Related Articles
Sidney Wood says he was evicted from his home last month after he couldn’t pay his rent.
Wood, 41, couldn’t afford the $1,620-a-month Edmonton basement apartment he shared with his two teenage children. Not after he and his wife separated in March, and not on his CPP disability income, which he says is $1,403 a month.
So Wood, who can no longer work because of PTSD after 11 years as a correctional officer in a maximum-security prison, had to return to St. Theresa Point First Nation, an Oji-Cree reserve in northern Manitoba. His children, who are 15 and 16, stayed with relatives in Edmonton.
Now Wood sleeps in a makeshift shed on his father’s property, because eight people already live in the three-bedroom house. The shed is about 1,800 square feet. But that’s not the part that bothers him.
“I just miss my kids so much. That’s what’s killing me,” he tearfully told CBC News. “It’s just one thing after another after another.”
Wood reached out to CBC News because he wanted his story to be shared. He is one of many people with disabilities struggling to pay rent during the housing crisis. keep the country in its grip.
A new study from Statistics Canada shows that a disproportionate number of disabled tenants are facing eviction. As the problem worsens, disabled people are at greater risk of becoming homeless, housing advocates say.
With rising prices and reduced availability, finding housing has become daunting. Less than one percent of rental units are both vacant and affordable for the majority of renters in the country, a recent CBC News Analysis of over 1,000 neighbourhoods in Canada’s largest cities.
That situation becomes even more dire for Canadians with disabilities, who have a lower middle income — about $35,700 in 2023, according to CBC analysis Data from Statistics Canada — but that also live more often in rental properties than the total population.
“When governments talk about building affordable housing, they rarely mean the affordability that someone on disability benefits can afford,” Gabrielle Peters, an author and policy analyst for people with disabilities, told CBC News.
Overrepresented in all aspects of inadequate housing
According to a report from the National Institutes of Health, approximately eight million Canadians, or 27 percent of the population, have a disability. joint report published last month by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate (OFHA).
Disabled people can be physical, mental, intellectual, sensory, visible or invisible and hinder the “full and effective participation of a person in society on an equal basis with others,” according to the United Nations.
According to 2017 data from Stats Can, people with disabilities were more likely to spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs, the standard for affordability established by the CMHC in 1986. And an estimated 44 percent of renters with disabilities live in unaffordable situations, compared to 34.6 percent of the general population.
With a median income of $35,700, there are only about 2,800 bachelor’s or one-bedroom units available and affordable in the 35 metro areas CBC News analyzed. That’s a tiny fraction of one per cent — 0.18 per cent — of all bachelor’s or one-bedroom rental units.
Finding anything larger would be nearly impossible. Fewer than one in 6,000 — or 0.015 percent — of all two-bedroom rental units in the areas CBC analyzed were affordable on the median income for someone with a disability.
According to a CBC News analysis of more than 1,000 neighbourhoods in Canada’s largest cities, less than one per cent of rental units are both vacant and affordable for the majority of renters. CBC’s Nael Shiab shows off a new online tool that shows where you can afford to rent.
The CHRC and OFHA report finds that Canadians with disabilities are over-represented in all aspects of inadequate housing and homelessness.
They are four times more likely to be homeless, the report found. They are also more likely to live in unaffordable housing and almost twice as likely to live in “core needs housing” – housing that is unaffordable, in poor condition and does not offer enough space for residents.
“We have been monitoring housing outcomes for people with disabilities in Canada and know that housing affordability is a serious issue,” Marie-Josée Houle, federal housing advocate at the CHRC, told CBC News in an emailed statement.
“People with disabilities continue to tell us that they live in constant fear of becoming homeless, and that this has serious consequences for their health.”
‘Constant, severe fear’
That includes Toronto resident William Rollins, 42, who says he has been constantly worried about his future since his landlord served him with an N-12 eviction notice, which means tenants are forced to vacate their apartment if the owner, a member of their immediate family or a caregiver wants to move in.
When he originally found his apartment, Rollins was working for a bank and says the $1,775 a month was easy to pay. But now, Rollins is on long-term disability with a multitude of diagnoses, including autism spectrum disorder, depression and anxiety, and tachycardia. He is also HIV-positive.
“This situation has left me feeling extremely vulnerable. It’s frustrating and demoralizing to know that despite my best efforts, my circumstances are largely beyond my control,” Rollins told CBC News.
Rollins receives about $3,000 a month between long-term disability benefits and CPP disability, but says he struggles to cover basic needs. He doesn’t know how he can afford to move when rent in Toronto is so high — an average of $2,793 a month, according to the listings website rental.ca.
He could move back home to Calgary, he said, but that would mean losing all his medical support, including the psychiatrist he’s been seeing for a decade. So he’s fighting the N-12 notice, hoping to at least buy himself more time before he has to move.
“The fear of not knowing where I’m going to live is paralyzing,” Rollins said.
“If I am evicted, I have very few options. Without a substantial safety net, the possibility of becoming homeless is very real. This situation creates a constant, severe anxiety that impacts my daily life and overall mental health.”
Major barriers
People with disabilities face several significant barriers to affordable housing, and there is a long history of ableism in housing, including institutionalization, Peters said.
“In short, it comes down to the fact that disabled people are deliberately designed outside of society and everything in our cities, including housing, is designed for people without disabilities,” Peters said.
Some of the barriers include lack of support that allows people to live in the community, she explained, inaccessibility and discrimination. But a major barrier is how we define affordability, Peters added, noting that people with disabilities more likely to live in povertyand at deeper levels of poverty.
And while people with disabilities are overrepresented in terms of evictions, they also have fewer options, Peters added. For example, couchsurfing with friends wouldn’t work for Peters as a wheelchair user.
“Even though I can enter their homes, I am not allowed to use their toilets.”
‘It’s killing me’
Housing instability is extremely stressful for everyone, but it can be particularly distressing and disruptive for people with disabilities, given these barriers, said Annie Hodgins, executive director of the nonprofit Canadian Centre for Housing Rights in Toronto. Cost is a big part of this instability, she added.
According to Hodgins, about a third of the people who call their rental helpline each year have a disability.
“The housing crisis is causing a lot of stress,” Hodgins said.
The stress of being separated from his children, sleeping in a shed and not knowing what to do next has taken a toll on Sidney Wood’s mental health, he tearfully told CBC News. Wood says he has developed PTSD from the violence he endured as a prison guard.
He suffers from anxiety and depression and has become paranoid, fearing that he is being followed when he walks home from work.
Some of those feelings have returned recently, he said.
“It’s killing me.”
There is support available for anyone affected by these reports. You can talk to a mental health professional at Wellbeing Together Canada by calling 1-866-585-0445 or texting WELLNESS to 686868 for young people or 741741 for adults. It is free and confidential.
