Western governments are fanatical about public safety and, in some cases, this fanaticism it is justified. Tightened border security, a direct result of 9/11, is one such case.
Our governments, however, can get carried away with the notion of public safety. From plastic playgrounds to charging parents for allowing their children to walk home alone from school, nearly each time our overly-coddled society blindly accepts government "help," a tiny grain of freedom is lost in the process.
Such is the case for people with developmental disabilities living across the province. To kick off the year, the province announced new safety rules for housing that's rented to people receiving disability support from the province.
In essence, the new standards force landlords to make safety accommodations well above provincial housing codes and more in line with public institutions. Landlords are being hit with costly safety upgrades such as sprinkler system installations to comply with the new standards.
One building owner in Edmonton had to shut the water off to his building while a water mixing system was installed in one of his units. The upgrade is designed to automatically mix cold and hot water to ensure the tenant does not scald himself. The LoSeCa Foundation said the upgrade was unnecessary and the man is perfectly capable of running his own bath.
Many people with disabilities who live independently have the life skills to do so and are offered support and education to facilitate that. The regulations were brought in following the unfortunate death of a woman with Down syndrome in a 2007 house fire. While the government does have a responsibility to try and mitigate those types of accidents and protect society's most vulnerable, these new rules are placing monetary hardships on landlords and could plausibly force these people to find somewhere else to live, adding undue stress to their lives.
LoCeSa claims evictions have already occurred due to the new regulations. It added landlords, with the benefit of a one per cent vacancy rate in the region, could easily choose to issue eviction notices instead of footing the bill for the necessary upgrades.
People with disabilities should be treated with dignity and, therefore, deserve to live where they want if they have the ability and support to do so. These new regulations could have an adverse impact on the very people they're trying to help. While the easiest solution may be for the government to pay for the renovations by offering tax breaks and/or rebates to landlords, the community the legislation is affecting might offer better solutions.
Less than a week after the April 1 compliance deadline, the province is seeing the ramifications of these changes. It is defending itself in human rights cases and could be picking up the tab for people who will have no choice but to move to long-term care beds or other government-funded institutions.
The regulations do not provide incentives for landowners, and the urge may be too strong to look for another renter than engage in a costly retrofit. Certainly the regulations were intended to benefit the province's disabled, but they're short of hitting the mark.
