Persons with disabilities face many distinct challenges when it comes to securing their right to adequate housing. This is particularly true when it comes to security of tenure, a fundamental aspect of the right to adequate housing. Persons with disabilities often experience challenges in this arena because their right to security of tenure depends on the realization of several other interrelated rights, which are improperly enforced, ignored, or narrowly interpreted.

Ultimately, the source of much of this discrimination comes from the fact that the physical and social environment in which persons with disabilities live is not suited to meet their unique needs. As the social model of disability suggests, these environmental and social barriers effectively “disable” people and ensure that they have greater difficulty maintaining a tenancy or a residence.

This report describes several of these barriers, and the role that our legal system plays in constructing them. It then briefly describes the federal government’s obligations under the National Housing Strategy Act as they relate to these obstacles and will present several potential strategies that the federal government could use to both remediate the barriers and meet its obligations under the NHSA. The specific issues that this report will explore include the roles of building codes, residential tenancy legislation, and common violations of human rights legislation in undermining the security of tenure of persons with disabilities.