The Lack of Accessible Housing in Canada Report

National Pensioners Federation Joint Submission to the National Housing Council Review Panel on “The Lack of Accessible Housing”

Older Canadians with disabilities can face the double burden of inaccessible housing and insufficient income. The convergence of an ageing population and increasing rates of disability means that the need for accessible housing will only intensify. Despite the statutory recognition of the right to adequate housing under the National Housing Strategy Act (NHSA), persons with disabilities (PWDs) constitute part of the most acutely affected populations in the accessible housing crisis, yet they remain systematically deprioritized in housing policy, funding allocation, and legal accountability.

The National Institute on Ageing (NIA)’s 2025 Ageing in Canada Survey findings:

The proportion of Canadians reporting a disability increases markedly with age. In 2022, 27% of Canadians aged 15 and older reported having one or more disabilities. Among those aged 65 and older, the proportion of adults having one or more disabilities was 40%, compared to 15.8% among those aged15 to 24 and 21.1% aged 25 to 64. The most commonly cited disabilities for older Canadians include, pain related (68%), mobility (63%) and flexibility (59%).3 The statistics demonstrate as individuals age, they are more likely to experience a higher number of concurrent disabilities which can lead to additional accessibility challenges. Nearly half (42%) of older adults with a disability had four or more concurrent disabilities, while youth (43%) and working-age adults (36%) were most likely to have two or three concurrent disabilities.

Read the Joint Submission: https://niageing.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/06-23-2026-submission-lack-of-accessible-housing-in-canada.pdf