Thank you.
I'm Bruce Drewett, the national president of the Canadian Paraplegic Association, and I have with me Mr. Bill Adair, executive director of CPA Ontario, who will join me in the presentation.
I would like to start by thanking the standing committee for giving us the opportunity today to talk about a very critical issue relating to our membership, that is, housing affordability, accessibility, and availability.
First, I'd like to say that when we poll our members on an ongoing basis, the issue of housing is at the forefront of the issues of most concern to our almost 40,000 members with a spinal cord injury. It's an issue for them, whether a matter of affordability, accessibility, or availability. All of these are paramount. It also becomes critically important when we look at the overlay of people who are living in poverty and the co-relationship with people having safe, affordable, and sustainable housing. It's a serious issue.
It's no secret to any of you, I'm sure, that the incidence of people living in poverty among the population we represent is significant, and it should come as no further surprise that the problem becomes much exacerbated when people don't have housing available, which really is the stabilizer for all sorts of other opportunities in society, whether it's having a job, transportation, and opportunities for recreation, and so on. Without a house to live in, it's pretty darn difficult.
The other thing I would like you to keep in mind today, as we go through our discussion, is that when we look at trends within our community of those acquiring a spinal cord injury, there is a greater prevalence among seniors of those experiencing a spinal cord injury these days. So when we look at the issue of disability, the three considerations of spinal cord injury, aging, and poverty prevalence together set out the very serious way this has to be considered, given the interface we have among the various issues.
Bill is going to provide an couple of anecdotes that actually demonstrate the seriousness of these issues for our community, and then I'm going to close with some recommendations.