Developmentally Disabled People Are Being Pushed into Homelessness - The Tyee [2023-11-28]

Just before the summer started, Jon Harry was told he’d have to leave his room at a Duncan motel because the owner planned to renovate.

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Harry, on provincial disability benefits, had already been struggling to pay for his small motel room, which didn’t include a kitchen: rent was $1,100 a month, leaving just $200 to pay for food and other living expenses.

But Harry was unable to find a new place to rent, and for the last five months, he’s been sleeping rough.

“I was in a tarp and blanket, and then I was in a tent for a little bit,” the 34-year-old Duncan resident told The Tyee. “And now I’m trying to go to a shelter.”

Harry is one of a new wave of developmentally disabled people who are ending up homeless in B.C.

Organizations that support developmentally disabled clients say it’s a recent phenomenon, and a new low for a province that has struggled with rising homelessness, spiking rents and rampant real estate speculation for years.