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.