Consider people with disabilities who are living in Canada. They are more likely to be homeless, or living in unsuitable housing, or living in unaffordable housing compared to people who do not have disabiities. And despite numerous pieces of legislation that pledge to end unequal treatment for people with disabilities1, Canada’s performance falls far short of its aspirations.
Community organizations are rallying to ensure that people with disabilities have full enjoyment of their housing rights. The Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR) has two initiatives underway: an annotated bibliography and a research project.
Annotated bibliography on the right to housing for disabled people
This project compiles grey literature2 about housing and disabilities in Canada. It currently contains 170 documents, with the intention to add more documents as they are discovered or published.
Annotating means that someone has read each document and prepared a summary and assessment of its contents. This effort pays off for people who are working to improve housing conditions for people with disabilities. It does so by providing a handy access to all known available literature. This is a resource that will be useful in Canada and in other jurisdictions. For more on the annotated bibliography, check out the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights: Literature On The Right To Housing For Disabled People
Research project: The right to housing for disabled people in Canada
Building on the annotated bibiography, CCHR has posted a plan and approach for a research project about the right to housing for disabled people in Canada. Currently CCHR is seeking advice about the housing experiences of people with disabilities. People who want to learn more, or have input, can connect directly with the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights: Research Project: The Right to Housing for Disabled People in Canada
Footnotes
- Examples include the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, being a signatory to the United Nations Declaration on the rights of people with disabilities as well as Canada’s National Housing Strategy Act.
- Simon Fraser University has posted a helpful guide to grey literature: Grey literature: What it is & how to find it
