Vancouver wheelchair users are losing a program that helps them find housing
A program that has helped hundreds of wheelchair users find accessible housing in Metro Vancouver has lost funding from the federal government.
The Right Fit is a program that evaluates units for their accessibility features, curates a list of what’s available in the region, and then matches wheelchair users into homes that are the right fit for them.
Since its inception, it’s housed 371 people, including family members.
Helaine Boyd, the executive director of Disability Alliance BC (DABC), said it is the only program of its kind in Canada. DABC created the program in 2017, after understanding that accessible units were being rented out to non-disabled tenants who didn’t need the accessibility features.
“And so it has created a scarcity of supply in the housing market, specifically for wheelchair users,” she told Daily Hive Urbanized.
Accessible homes include features like a roll-in shower, grab bars, lower countertops with enough space for people’s knees underneath, a greater turning radius in hallways and doorways, among others.
Boyd said that housing providers were “unintentionally or intentionally discriminatory towards a wheelchair user, so they may choose not to rent to them, even if it is an accessible unit.”
“There’s just a lot of prejudice towards wheelchair users in the rental housing market to begin with.”
She said a “significant” number of their clients were unhoused or at risk of homelessness, with the remainder living in inappropriate housing and couldn’t live independently.
“They weren’t able to enter and leave their home without help. They weren’t able to cook a meal or have a shower.”
Boyd also pointed out that the Canadian definition of homelessness includes people without appropriate housing.
Why are they losing funding?
The federal government provided the Right Fit program with just under $500,000 a year.
Boyd said Right Fit was funded by Reaching Home, the federal government’s homelessness strategy that supplies funding for direct services to support people in need of housing.
“We found out two weeks before the end of the fiscal year that our federal funding would be cut, and so we’re currently just operating off of reserves, trying our best to save the Right Fit program,” she said.
“We found out through them that they thought that our program was more systemic advocacy than direct services, which was very strange for us, because we definitely do direct services. We place people into accessible housing regularly. That’s our primary service.”
She added that systemic advocacy is needed, due to the ableism in the housing sector, people not understanding why accessible housing is important, and to build accessible units so that they’re actually accessible.
For example, Boyd said many accessible units are one bedrooms or studios, but there are many families who need wheelchairs.
Further, many wheelchair users face discrimination from housing providers, who might decide not to rent to them even if it’s an accessible unit.
Housing providers also often want to rent out their units as quickly as possible. However, a wheelchair user needs additional time to look through the unit and might have additional questions.
Daily Hive Urbanized reached out to the Ministry of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada. We will update the story with their response.