Woman running out of time
Quadriplegic awaits province’s assessment of housing proposal
Jen Powley can't bear the thought of winding up in a nursing home.
Powley's aging parents in Alberta can no longer afford to pay for her Halifax condo and the escalating costs of her home care. Powley, who is quadriplegic and has difficulty communicating, is destined to wind up like the roughly 240 severely disabled adults that are currently being housed in long-term care homes in Nova Scotia.
Her fear of such a fate is allconsuming because she said she risks losing the two things she values most: her independence and the life she has worked hard to create.
“I thought about suicide,” she said with her partner Tom Elliott by her side. “But Tom is here. The lack of security that I'm facing is very difficult and there's even a long waiting list for nursing homes. But there is no Plan B for me.”
Powley, whose body has been ravaged by the effects of multiple sclerosis, is not giving up on her fight to live her life with dignity. She's not willing to let the provincial government off the hook for failing to live up to past promises to provide proper supports and services in the community for disabled adults.
When the Liberal government got into power in 2013 it pledged to follow a 10-year plan to clear the community supported housing waitlist for adults with disabilities. The waitlist has since grown to more than 1,500 people, from roughly 1,100.
Powley has come up with a solution for her own situation and a kind of blueprint for the province to follow in bridging the housing gap. But it requires funding from the province.
Powley has partnered with developer EcoGreen Homes, which is willing to convert one of its Gottingen Street properties into an accessible home for Powley and three other disabled adults. She and the developer presented the proposal to the Department of Community Services last February and were told a decision on whether it would be approved would come two months later. She's still waiting.
“Why is this taking so long?" she said. "I just want an opportunity to live in the community and continue to live my life. I would just like all people to be treated as equal by the government.
"That's what every adult wants. I don't think that just because I am disabled I deserve less.”
The proposal includes $5,000 per month in rent for the four adults. More money would also be required to cover the cost of specialized equipment and 24-7 support.
Tracey Taweel, department of community services deputy minister, called Powley's housing proposal "very interesting" and said the department would make a decision on whether to approve the project before Christmas or shortly after.
The government announced plans in 2017 for eight new small-options homes, which are housing units of up to four residents. Only three of the homes are currently open but the deputy minister said the remaining five would be in operation before spring 2020. But this falls well short of what's needed.
This year's budget contains no money for community housing for disabled adults and the province has yet to say whether there would be any funding in next year's budget.
Still, the province continues to pledge that it will meet its commitment to clear the waiting list by 2023. While Taweel said everyone on the waiting list has been assessed for their housing needs, she insisted the process of moving people into community housing is complicated, especially for some who've been institutionalized the majority of their lives.
There are no targets in place for reducing the housing waitlist. Taweel also said the province has also committed to closing institutions that house roughly 500 disabled adults in the province, but it also has no timeline for that to happen.
“We continue to work closely with clients, families, service providers and the community to develop a variety of programs and supports that Nova Scotians with disabilities may need," said an email statement from Community Services. “It is important to note that closing large-scale facilities and moving residents into the community is a complex process, where the specific needs of each client must be carefully considered.”
The province continues to stall in meeting the growing housing need even after being fined earlier this month for violating the human rights of three people with intellectual disabilities who were confined to a hospital ward for years. The tribunal found that the province failed in its duty to find them suitable community homes
Human Rights Board chairman Walter Thompson ruled the province discriminated against Joseph Delaney, Beth MacLean and the late Sheila Livingstone — who died before the hearing was completed — based on their disability. But Thompson stopped short of applying the ruling to all institutionalized disabled adults, which would have meant that systemic discrimination against people with disabilities had occurred. Lawyer Claire McNeil, who is representing the Disability Rights Coalition of Nova Scotia, is challenging that ruling in the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.
She said the province's decision to so far ignore its commitment in 2013 to clear the waitlist has come at the expense of enormous human suffering and amounts to a gross human rights violation.
“There's a lack of political will to move it forward and that should be front-and-centre for all of us to hold our MLAs to account. Why is it that in the face of such human suffering and tragedy that these people aren't getting access to the care they need?" said McNeil.
“If you leave things and ignore them for decades the cost of addressing the problem is going to increase but that's not an excuse for doing nothing.”
In the end, Wayne MacKay, a Dalhousie University professor and human rights expert, said there's no real deterrent for the province to change its ways. The complainants in the human rights tribunal received a combined $220,000. That's not nearly enough compensation or a sufficient penalty for the province to change its discriminatory ways," said MacKay.
“I think until the price of discrimination is high enough there isn't enough incentive for the government to act proactively to prevent this kind of discrimination,” said MacKay.