07/17/2025
📢 Important Update Affecting the Disability Community in Alberta 📢
The Alberta government has announced a significant rent increase for individuals receiving AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) who live in community housing. Starting October 1, rent will rise from 17% to 30% of a tenant's income—an increase of over 63%, or more than $200 per month for many.
This comes on the heels of people with disabilities in Alberta being hit with a wave of harmful policies and structural setbacks:
-A 63% rent increase for individuals on AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) living in community housing, with no increase in income support.
-The clawback of the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) — a national anti-poverty measure — from adults who receive AISH, cancelling out its intended benefit.
-The quiet clawback of the Disability Tax Credit, reducing access to key supports.
-Ongoing barriers to accessing inclusive education, leaving children without the resources they need to thrive.
-Families struggling to navigate a fragmented and restrictive Family Supports for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) system.
-Gaps and inconsistencies in the Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) program, leaving adults unsupported.
-The looming threat of the Alberta Disability Assistance Program (ADAP) — with no transparency or meaningful consultation on how it could change lives for better or worse.
💬 Inclusion Alberta CEO Trish Bowman has rightfully called this “punitive and mean-spirited.” These decisions are not made in a vacuum—they impact people already facing immense challenges due to systemic barriers, lack of accessible services, and rising costs of living.
💥 What does this mean for our community?
More people with disabilities pushed into deeper poverty
Less money for food, medication, transportation, and essential supports
Increased stress, instability, and risk of homelessness
Widening gaps in equity, inclusion, and quality of life
At Inclusion Lethbridge, we believe every person has the right to live with dignity, participate fully in community, and receive support—not punishment. These policy choices don’t just hurt people—they undermine years of advocacy and progress toward inclusive, equitable communities.
🛑 We urge our local leaders and provincial decision-makers to reconsider these changes. Individuals with disabilities should not have to fight for basic needs or be penalized for finally receiving a national benefit that was long overdue.
We stand with Inclusion Alberta and all Albertans with disabilities who are impacted by this harmful policy shift.
*Media release: ‘The difference between almost living and barely existing’: On the heels of previous cuts, Alberta Government raises rent by 63% for AISH tenants in Community Housing
For immediate release – July 16, 2025
Alberta’s Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services has increased rent by $220/month, or 63%, for Community Housing tenants with disabilities who receive support from AISH.
Tina Trigg, President of Inclusion Alberta and parent of a young woman with intellectual disabilities said, “I can only imagine how devastating and terrifying this latest announcement is for adults with disabilities on AISH who rely on subsidized Community Housing. It is unconscionable that our government is consigning people with disabilities into deeper and deeper poverty, not recognizing the sharply rising cost of living and additional barriers they already live with each and every day. People deserve better.”
This rent increase comes soon after the Alberta government has announced it will be clawing back the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB), a federal initiative intended to reduce poverty, cut funding for self-advocate and family organizations, ignored calls to disclose how many 1000’s of children and adults with disabilities and their families are without needed disability support or to provide a plan to address the growing waitlists, and capped the amount AISH can increase at 2% per year regardless of how high inflation is.
In response to the clawback of the Canada Disability Benefit, one individual who receives AISH said $200 would have been “the difference between getting uncovered prescriptions paid for or having groceries for the month. The difference between almost living and barely existing.”
A collaborative of Alberta-based advocates, the University of Calgary’s Disability Policy Research Program and non-profits this week released a brief titled “Losing the Canada Disability Benefit means losing hope for many Albertans”, which highlights real-life examples of how the CDB clawback will keep Albertans with disabilities in poverty and recommends the policy be reversed.
“The decisions that have been made over the past year impacting the lives and futures of children and adults with intellectual disabilities are completely out of touch with the struggles of individuals and families who are fighting to survive and striving to build lives of hope and possibility for themselves or their family member with intellectual disabilities,” says Trish Bowman, CEO of Inclusion Alberta. “Children and adults with intellectual disabilities and their families want the same opportunities to thrive and contribute to Alberta as everyone else. Even while running a huge surplus, this government has relentlessly sought to eliminate spending that supports children and adults with disabilities and their families. Why are people with disabilities being targeted yet again?”
Learn more: https://inclusionalberta.org/connections/media-release-the-difference-between-almost-living-and-barely-existing-on-the-heels-of-previous-cuts-alberta-government-raises-rent-by-63-for-aish-tenants-in-community-housing/
