We started by asking

How can we work together to ensure that everyone – including persons with intellectual disabilities, has an affordable and accessible home that supports a sense of belonging and connection to the community?

Our Focus

Housing options for persons with intellectual disabilities are often limited by factors such as poverty, lack of support, and lack of options, and that housing options often fall under “care services,” meaning people are not protected like renters or homeowners. This leaves persons with intellectual disabilities facing housing precarity at a higher rate than people without disabilities.

The group, Disability Without Poverty, notes that: “In 2021, 16.5% of people with disabilities lived in poverty, representing more than 1.5 million people. This is compared to compared to 8.6% of people without disabilities… All provincial disability payments are below the poverty line. Most are far below the poverty line.” (www.disabilitywithoutpoverty.ca) Without an adequate income, housing costs are beyond what some persons with disabilities can afford.

According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), “In Canada, an estimated 13,200 adults with developmental disabilities live with parents or other family members because of a lack of resources or community supports… More than 75% of adult Canadians with intellectual disabilities who do not live with their families are living in poverty and are at a very high risk of homelessness.” And, “Almost 25,000 Canadians with significant developmental disabilities are in core housing need.” (CMHC Research Insight, April 2021)

From a Housing First perspective, this lack of housing security underpins other gaps in peoples’ lives including access to support, services and social connection. Knowing this, the work of the Lab focused on inclusive housing solutions that support and nurture belonging for everyone – including people with intellectual disabilities.

Guiding Principles

Inclusive Housing Benefits Everyone

Centering People with Living Experience

Cross-Sectoral Collaboration

The Lab had 5 phases:

Definition
Discovery
Development
Test and Prototype
Roadmap

A young white woman with orange hair and glasses listening to a middle aged white woman with light hair and glasses at the Inclusive Housing Solutions Lab Forum in New Brunswick.

Learning together

Engaging people with disabilities as co-leaders and co-learners was essential to the work of this Lab.

Persons with intellectual disabilities were co-leaders and co-learners throughout the Lab as members of:

New Brunswick Stewardship Partners Team
Lived Experience Advisory Committee
Peer Researchers
Focus Groups

Guided by the New Brunswick Stewardship Partners Team. Profiles

Resource sharing by the National Community of Practice Team. CoP Profiles

“It’s a very important project. I like sharing experiences and learning from other people as well.”

Black and white photograph a white woman with dark hair and glasses smiling.

Stacey Howe

Stewardship Team member from Saint John, NB

Learning Together

Inclusive Housing Solutions Lab Partners

View Partners

A diverse crowd of people sitting and listening to a woman standing with a microphone in the middle of the room at the Inclusive Housing Solutions Lab forum in New Brunswick.

Lab Learnings

As part of the Lab process, we looked into the barriers and opportunities to creating inclusive housing. We conducted research through interviews, focus groups, peer research, and secondary research.

There are barriers to creating inclusive housing

The barriers we uncovered fell into four categories depicted by the four levels of the iceberg:

The tip – shows us what is happening, the EVENTS we are seeing
Second level – lays out the PATTERNS or trends
Third level – what influences the patterns, the SYSTEMS or contributing structures
Fourth level – the thinking or MINDSETS that influence our systems and patterns

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