One of the authors behind a 2013 report outlining necessary improvements to Nova Scotia’s Persons with Disabilities Program says change is taking far too long.
Wendy Lill, co-chair of the Community Homes Action Group (CHAG), said despite recent promises from the Liberal government to complete the goals outlined in the report, the number of people waiting for supported housing continues to grow.
“We’re talking about a wait list of hundreds of people and that wait list has been created because of a complete lack of movement on this file during the 90’s – a moratorium on creating community homes,” said Lill.
“Now, we have a complete crisis that needs to be dealt with.”
On Monday, hearings began for a human rights case against the province involving two people seeking to move out of locked-door, hospital-like settings and into a community-based living situation.
Lill said the case strengthens the perspective outlined in her 2013 report, but emphasised that the issue goes far beyond just the handful of complainants in that case.
A 2017 report by the Community Homes Action Group found that about three quarters of the 137 people with disabilities and their caregivers surveyed said progress has been “poor” in providing community-based housing.
READ MORE: Human rights complaint filed on behalf of people with disabilities
There are currently upwards of 1,500 people sitting on a wait list in need of some form of housing support from Community Services.
“The fact is because of the wait list that has been building over the years, for them to meet their commitments its going to take half a century, many of these people will be dead,” said Lill.
“We are shocked when we hear people wait two or three years for a hip replacement, but to hear people have to wait a decade or two decades or when their parents pass away and they get put at the top an emergency list, I don’t think that’s what we believe in as a society.”
The 2013 report provided a ‘roadmap’ to meet three main goals – greater self-direction, choice and control by people with disabilities and their families, modernized delivery system for supports and services to advance social and economic inclusion and increased capacity and involvement of generic community systems in enabling inclusion.
WATCH: Adequate housing a human right: disability advocates
Joe Rudderham, executive director of the Disabilities Support Program for Nova Scotia’s Department of Community Services said they’re currently in the process of determining how best to transition people out of larger facilities and into smaller home settings.
“I certainly can understand individuals who are looking at it from outside the system would recognise or say that its going to slow,” said Rudderham.
“The reality is, I think it’s going as fast as it needs to go, making sure we get it right.”
“We know from other jurisdictions what happens when you try to close down these institutions too quickly – you have negative outcomes for clients.”
He said the province is also focusing on a new program called Flex Independent which provides support for individuals moving from a family setting to an independent living arrangement. They’re also working towards opening up to five new small option homes over the next year.
“The reality is it takes time to ensure we have right participants in those homes, it takes time to actually determine where those homes are going to be, and it takes time to actually access the organisation that going to provide those support services,” said Rudderham.
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He said they’re focused on helping to transition upwards of a hundred people out of the Quest facility in Sackville and the Breton Ability Centre in Cape Breton.
“A really detailed planning process is necessary so we’re engaged with these two organisations to go through the full planning process and to be able to come back and make very specific recommendations on the transition of those participants to community-based settings,” he said.
When asked about the ongoing human rights case, Rudderham said he was unable to speak to specific client circumstances. However, he said there instances where some of the people currently sitting on the wait list need to receive supports in a medical setting.
“They would actually be the highest on our priority list in terms of placement. And when individuals require a residential setting and there is an opportunity we would facilitate that soon as possible,” he said.
The human rights hearing is set to resume on February 13.
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