Sidney Wood says he was evicted last month because he couldn’t pay his rent.
Wood, 41, couldn’t afford the $1,620 per month for a basement apartment in Edmonton that he shared with his two teenage children. Not after after he and his wife separated in March, and not on his CPP disability income that he says is $1,403 per month.
So Wood, who is unable to work due to PTSD after 11 years as a correctional officer in a maximum security prison, had to move back to St. Theresa Point First Nation, an Oji-Cree reserve in Northern Manitoba. His children, who are 15 and 16, stayed in Edmonton with family.
Now, Wood sleeps in a makeshift shed on his father’s property, because there are already eight people living in the three-bedroom house. The shed is about 180 square feet. But that’s not the part that bothers him.
“I just miss my kids so much. That’s what kills me,” he told CBC News, weeping. “It’s just one thing after another after another.”
Wood reached out to CBC News because he wanted his story shared. He is one of the many people with disabilities who struggle to pay rent amid the rental housing crisis gripping the country.
A new survey from Statistics Canada shows that a disproportionate number of disabled renters are subject to eviction, and as the problem gets worse, housing advocates say it puts disabled people at greater risk of becoming homeless.
With surging prices and decreased availability, finding housing has become daunting. Less than one per cent of rentals are both vacant and affordable for the majority of the country’s renters, a recent CBC News analysis of more than 1,000 neighbourhoods across Canada’s largest cities found.
That situation becomes more dire for Canadians with disabilities, who have a lower median income — about $35,700 in 2023, according to CBC’s analysis of Statistics Canada data — but who are also more likely to live in rented dwellings than the total population.
“When governments talk about building affordable housing they rarely mean at the level of affordability that someone on disability benefits could afford,” Gabrielle Peters, a disabled writer and policy analyst, told CBC News.
Over-represented in all aspects of inadequate housing
About eight million Canadians, or 27 per cent of the population, have a disability, according to a joint report released last month by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and Office of the Federal Housing Advocate (OFHA).
Disabilities can be physical, mental, intellectual, sensory, visible or invisible, and hinder a person’s “full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others,” according to the United Nations.
According to Stats Can data from 2017, people with disabilities were more likely to spend more than 30 per cent of their income on shelter costs, the benchmark for affordability set by the CMHC in 1986. And 44 per cent of renters with disabilities were estimated to be living in unaffordable situations, compared to 34.6 per cent of the total population.
Using the $35,700 median income, there are only around 2,800 bachelor or one-bedroom homes available and affordable across the 35 metropolitan areas CBC News analyzed. That’s a small fraction of one per cent — 0.18 per cent — of all bachelor or one-bedroom rentals.
To find something larger would be nearly impossible. Less than one in 6,000 — or 0.015 per cent — of all two-bedroom rentals in the areas CBC analyzed were affordable on a median income for someone with a disability.
According to a CBC News analysis of over 1,000 neighbourhoods across Canada’s largest cities, fewer than one per cent of rentals are both vacant and affordable for the majority of renters. CBC’s Nael Shiab shows a new online tool that reveals where you can afford to rent.
The CHRC and OFHA report found that Canadians with disabilities are over-represented in all aspects of inadequate housing and homelessness.
They were four times more likely to be homeless, the reported noted, as well as more likely to live in unaffordable housing and nearly twice as likely to live in “core housing need” — housing that is unaffordable, not in good repair, and with not enough space for the occupants.
“We’ve been monitoring housing outcomes for people with disabilities in Canada and know that housing affordability is a serious concern,” Marie-Josée Houle, federal housing advocate with the CHRC, told CBC News in an email statement.
“People with disabilities continue telling us that they’re constantly afraid of becoming homeless, and this is seriously impacting their health.”
‘Constant, heavy anxiety’
That’s true for William Rollins, 42, who lives in Toronto and says he is constantly worried for his future ever since his landlord served him an N-12 eviction notice, which forces tenants to move out of an apartment if the owner, a member of their immediate family, or a caregiver wants to move in.
When he originally found his condo, Rollins worked for a bank, and says the $1,775 per month was easily affordable. But now Rollins is on long-term disability with a myriad of diagnoses, including Autism Spectrum Disorder, depression and anxiety, and tachycardia. He is also HIV-positive.
“This situation makes me feel 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 per month between long-term disability benefits and CPP disability, but says he is struggling to cover essentials. He doesn’t know how he can possibly afford to move when rent in Toronto is so high — on average $2,793 per month, according to listings website rentals.ca.
He could move back home to Calgary, he said, but then he would lose all his medical supports, 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 out.
“The fear of not knowing where I’ll live next is debilitating,” Rollins said.
“If I am evicted, I have very few options. Without a substantial safety net, the likelihood of becoming homeless is very real. This situation brings a constant, heavy anxiety that affects my daily life and overall mental health.”
Significant barriers
People with disabilities face multiple significant barriers when attempting to secure affordable homes, and there’s a long history of ableism within housing including institutionalization, Peters said.
“The short version is that disabled people were deliberately designed out of society and thus everything about our cities, including housing, was designed for non-disabled people,” Peters said.
Some of the barriers are lacks of support that allow 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 are more likely to live in poverty, and at deeper levels of poverty.
And while people with disabilities are over-represented in terms of evictions, they also have fewer options, Peters added. For instance, couch surfing with friends wouldn’t work for Peters as a wheelchair user.
“Even if I can get into their homes, I can’t use their bathrooms.”
‘It’s killing me’
Housing instability is extremely distressing for anyone, but can be particularly upsetting and disruptive for people with disabilities given these barriers, said Annie Hodgins, executive director of the Toronto-based non-profit Canadian Centre for Housing Rights. Cost is a huge part of this instability, she added.
Hodgins says about a third “at least” of the people who call their rent hotline each year have disabilities.
“The housing crisis is causing a great deal of stress,” Hodgins said.
The distress of being separated from his children, sleeping in a shed and not knowing what to do next has worsened Sidney Wood’s mental health, he told CBC News tearfully. Wood says he developed PTSD from the violence he witnessed as a corrections officer.
He suffers from anxiety and depression and became paranoid, worried he was being followed home from work.
Some of those feelings have recently returned, he said.
“It’s killing me.”
Support is available for anyone affected by these reports. You can talk to a mental health professional via Wellness Together Canada by calling 1-866-585-0445 or text WELLNESS to 686868 for youth or 741741 for adults. It is free and confidential.