Barry Schmidl, executive director PEI Council of the Disabled
Every person, regardless of their abilities, should have the right to accessible, affordable housing, said the executive director of the P.E.I. Council of the Disabled.
Barry Schmidl was on hand at the council’s policy conference, ‘Let’s Talk’, held Saturday at Ecole Francois-Buote school in Charlottetown.
Accessible and affordable housing was one of three key topics discussed over the weekend. The other issues were accessible public transit and the Disability Support Program.
Schmidl said there are some places, such as the United Kingdom, that consider housing a human right. There is no such legislation like that in Canada.
“There are people who are living in institutions, for example, who, with support, could be living in the community if there was an accessible unit which was affordable for them.’’
Schmidl said an institution could have a negative impact on a person who is living there that doesn’t need to be there.
“Your independence isseverely limited and your sense of self-worth and all that goes with that is affected by it as well.”
The provincial and municipal governments can do a number of things to help with this issue, he continued.
“Having existing public housing renovated to become wheelchair-accessible in areas where people actually want to live, like in larger centres (is one thing that can be done),” he said. “Also, increasing the supply of new accessible, affordable housing by having government supply land that they own and aren’t using, where it’s appropriate, for affordable housing projects (would also be beneficial).”
Municipalities can create bylaws that require every multi-unit residential building to have a fixed percentage of accessible units in them, Schmidl added.
“That wouldn’t cost the provincial or municipal governments a penny.”
Another issue discussed on the weekend was accessible public transit.
At the moment, the buses are “sort of” accessible, Schmidl said.
“They have the international wheelchair accessible symbol on the back and they have something that’s supposed to be a ramp that allows you to get on, but several of them are broken. So not all the buses are accessible. As far as we’re concerned, the buses are only sort of accessible and that’s not good enough.”
Charlottetown shouldn’t be the only place where accessible public transit exists, he said.
“There needs to be public transit across the Island.”
The third issue covered was he Disability Support Program. Schmidl said in the recent budget announcement, the provincial government allotted $100,000 to do a review of the disability services and said that is a step in the right direction.
“They should spend it making sure that everybody who is receiving any benefit from the DSP, as well as everybody who has a disability whose current disability isn’t covered by the DSP, is heard as far as their needs are concerned.”
Not all disabilities are covered, such as arthritis.
“Even though arthritis might be considered a condition or a symptom rather than a disability, the results of it are disabilities. If you’re going to have a disability support program, you need to have a disability support program.”
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