Discrimination and dignity - Monitoring the right to housing for people with disabilities

Discrimination and dignity

Are people with disabilities experiencing housing discrimination? Are they able to live with dignity?

Discrimination is when a person is treated unfairly because of a part of their identity. People can experience more than one kind of discrimination. This is called “intersectional discrimination”. For example, a person may experience discrimination because of their disability and their race. Freedom from discrimination allows people with disabilities to live with dignity.

Outcome indicators

  • Notes: For this section of our framework, we looked at data about human rights complaints in the annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions. We also looked at annual reports of human rights tribunals in Ontario, British Columbia and Nunavut, since people file complaints directly with those tribunals.
  • Most human rights institutions in Canada continue to receive the most complaints about discrimination based on disability. Human rights institutions report on complaints in different ways. For example, some report the number of complaints they received each year. Others report the number of complaints they accepted each year. Some institutions report by calendar year, and others report by fiscal year. These differences make it hard to compare complaints data from across the country.
  • The Canadian Social Survey includes data on housing discrimination, but we don’t have access to this data.
  1. Percentage of housing discrimination complaints based on disability
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability as a ground of discrimination.
    • Results: Quebec and Saskatchewan’s human rights commissions received housing discrimination complaints that cited disability. Annual reports of other human rights institutions didn’t mention housing discrimination complaints that cited disability.
      • Quebec:
        • 2023-2024: Not available
        • 2022-2023:
          • 10% of the investigation files they opened were about housing. They opened 77 investigation files about housing. 12 of those files cited disability as a ground of discrimination.
        • 2021-2022:
          • 8% of the investigation files they opened were about housing. They opened 39 investigation files about housing. 3 of those files cited disability as a ground of discrimination.
        • 2020-2021:
          • 8% of the investigation files they opened were about housing. They opened 63 investigation files about housing. 10 of those files cited disability as a ground of discrimination.
      • Saskatchewan:
        • 2023-2024:
          • Less than 1% of their formalized complaints were about housing. 1 formalized complaint about housing cited disability.
        • 2022-2023:
          • About 6% of their formalized complaints were about housing. 6 formalized complaints about housing cited disability.
        • 2021-2022:
          • About 8% of their formalized complaints were about housing. 8 of their formalized complaints about housing cited disability.
        • 2020-2021:
          • About 2% of their formalized complaints were about housing. 2 of their formalized complaints about housing cited disability.
    • Data sources: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  2. Percentage of housing discrimination complaints based on disability and socio-economic status
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability and socio-economic status as grounds of discrimination. Socio-economic status is also called “social condition” and “receipt of social assistance”.
    • Results: Human rights institutions did not mention in their annual reports whether they received complaints about housing that cited disability and socio-economic status.
      • Data source: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  3. Percentage of housing discrimination complaints based on disability and race
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability and race / ethnicity as grounds of discrimination.
    • Results: Human rights institutions did not mention in their annual reports whether they received complaints about housing that cited disability and race.
      • Data source: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  4. Percentage of human rights complaints about housing discrimination based on disability and sex
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability and sex as grounds of discrimination.
    • Results: Human rights institutions did not mention in their annual reports whether they received complaints about housing that cited disability and sex.
      • Data source: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  5. Percentage of housing discrimination complaints based on disability and family status
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability and family status as grounds of discrimination.
    • Results: Human rights institutions did not mention in their annual reports whether they received complaints about housing that cited disability and family status.
      • Data source: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  6. Percentage of housing discrimination complaints based on disability and sexual orientation
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability and sexual orientation as grounds of discrimination.
    • Results: Human rights institutions did not mention in their annual reports whether they received complaints about housing that cited disability and sexual orientation.
      • Data source: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  7. Percentage of housing discrimination complaints based on disability and gender identity
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability and gender identity / gender expression as grounds of discrimination.
    • Results: Human rights institutions did not mention in their annual reports whether they received complaints about housing that cited disability and gender identity.
      • Data source: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  8. Percentage of housing discrimination complaints based on disability and age
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability and age as grounds of discrimination.
    • Results: Human rights institutions did not mention in their annual reports whether they received complaints about housing that cited disability and age.
      • Data source: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  9. Percentage of housing discrimination complaints based on disability and religion
    • Description: This looks at human rights complaints about housing that cite disability and religion as grounds of discrimination.
    • Results: Human rights institutions did not mention in their annual reports whether they received complaints about housing that cited disability and religion.
      • Data source: Annual reports of federal, provincial and territorial human rights commissions (2020 to 2024)
  10. Percentage of people with disabilities who feel their housing allows them to live with dignity.
    • Description: This looks at people who feel their housing allows them to live with dignity.
    • Results: Not available. This data is not currently collected through national or provincial / territorial surveys. We are advocating for better data collection and transparency in this area.

Policy effort and resource indicators

In development

Did you find what you were looking for?Yes No

Did you find what you were looking for?

Yes No