Ottawa Agencies Sound Alarm

“This Is Heartbreaking”

Ottawa Agencies Sound Alarm Over Deepening Crisis in Developmental Services

Ottawa, ON December 10, 2025:

“It’s not right this is happening!” “This is heartbreaking…”

These are the voices of Ontarians reacting to the escalating crisis in our province’s Developmental Services sector, a situation that’s been decades in the making.

Twelve Agencies in the Ottawa area have partnered to call for urgent action and long-term investment to help adults with developmental disabilities who are being left behind by a system that has been underfunded far too long.

More than thirty years of chronic underinvestment have led to over 53,000 adults with intellectual disabilities waiting for essential supports and services. Some of our most vulnerable citizens are slipping through the cracks, forced to live in extreme poverty, on the streets and increasingly at risk of being lured into crime or sex trafficking.

“The situation we’re in right now is the result of successive governments not funding the Sector properly,” says Al Roberts, Chair of the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (OCAPDD). “Parents and families in the Ottawa area are in crisis and they regularly share their concerns and challenges with us. We’re feeling that the system is on the verge of collapse if significant steps aren’t taken immediately.”

In Ottawa alone, there are 3,710 adults with developmental disabilities waiting for supports and services and in East Region there are even more, with 5,724 languishing on waiting lists. Many have waited decades for help with medication management, basic life skills and assistance to find homes, jobs, and community activities that would allow them to live a life of dignity and inclusion.

Filipa Saraiva is one of many parents at a breaking point. “My daughter Ana has been on a waiting list for ten years to find supportive housing,” explains Ms. Saraiva. “Ana has cerebral palsy and a developmental disability. I had to leave work to look after her when I couldn’t find help. She’s in a day program now but I constantly worry about the day when I’m no longer able to care for her. What will happen to my daughter then?”

“After 30 years of underfunding something has to change,” says John Rietschlin, Board Chair of L’Arche Ottawa. “The long wait lists and funding shortfalls that have plagued the Sector for years have to be addressed now to ensure some of Ottawa’s most vulnerable are not forgotten.”

For media inquiries, please contact: Teresa Kruze. tkruze@rogers.com 416-727-8145

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Breaking Point: Data Reveals Urgent Need for Action on Poverty and Exploitation

Poverty

• According to Statistics Canada, 28% of adults with severe disabilities living alone have incomes below the poverty line (Statistics Canada, 2022)

• Inclusion Canada has estimated that 73% of people with intellectual disabilities living apart from family have incomes below the poverty line (Inclusion Canada, 2024).

• Single people relying on ODSP almost inevitably live under the poverty line: ODSP provides a maximum of $17,000 per year, whereas the poverty line is approximately $28,000 (depending on region).

Homelessness

• In the GTA, one in five shelter users has a developmental disability. · Other sources have put this figure between 12% and 35% (noting that the group accounts for about 2% of the population).

Crime

• Community Living Ontario has received a number of reports from member agencies about people with intellectual disabilities being drawn into potential criminal activities such as drug and theft rings, and having their apartments taken over.

• People with developmental disabilities make up 17% of all forensic inpatients in Ontario (i.e. where mental illness is a factor in crime), 8% of people in community mental health justice programs, and 2% of provincial and federal correctional facility inmates: https://www.camh.ca/-/media/professionals-files/hcardd/snapshots/hcardd-snapshot-dd-overview-ontarios-corrections-system-data-story-pdf.pdf

Victimization

• In Canada, the rate of violent victimization (i.e., sexual assault, robbery, physical assault) against women with intellectual disabilities is four times higher than for women without a disability.

  
  

• Women and girls who have an intellectual disability are at high risk of abuse and trafficking due to various factors including a lack of access to services; social marginalization, stereotyping, and discrimination; social isolation; fear of losing supports and resources; and low educational attainment and unemployment