January 20, 2026 at Toronto City Hall
Good morning Budget Committee members.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.
My name is Wendy Porch. I am the Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto also known as CILT. I am a short white woman with long dark hair and today I’m wearing a red shirt. I am a person with a disability.
I served as a member of the City’s Accessibility Advisory Committee for six years. I also chaired the City’s Accessibility Task Force on COVID-19 Vaccines. I am a member of the Accessible Housing Working Group, and the Shelters and Housing Advisory Committee known as SHAC.
My organization CILT has supported disabled Torontonians for more than forty years. We are also the convener of the GTA Disability Coalition, bringing together organizations across the region.
Just last week, we co-hosted a Budget town hall with members of the disability community, Social Planning Toronto and TTC Riders. Our community ALSO contacts us for a range of supports on a daily basis.
What I hope to convey this morning is not abstract policy analysis.
It is what disabled people in Toronto are telling us — clearly and consistently — right now.
Let me begin with one example.
We know of a disabled person in Toronto who is currently living out of their car —They had an apartment, experienced a significant health challenge, went on ODSP and were pressured by their landlord to leave the apartment. The places now available to them are not usable. They cannot live independently. So instead of a home, they sleep in a vehicle. not because housing does not exist, but because affordable and accessible housing does not.
This is what happens when accessibility is treated as optional rather than essential.
And this is not an isolated situation.
At our town hall last week, we spoke about housing insecurity, affordability, and the growing gap between disability incomes and the cost of living in Toronto.
People welcomed the increased investment in the Rent Bank. But application limits mean people are still being turned away — and when disabled people lose housing, the consequences are immediate and severe.
There was also appreciation for the TTC fare cap, which matters. But that appreciation was paired with concern — because the fare is still too expensive. And the lack of snow removal makes accessing transit impossible anyway. We heard from community members about places like New York City where transit is substantially subsidized for disabled people. In London UK, a city I lived in myself for many years, all use of buses and trams is entirely free for disabled people. This is not the case in Toronto.
Again and again, the same message came through: disabled people do not see themselves in the City’s budget.
They do not see disability named.
They do not see accessibility tracked.
They do not see where spending is clearly targeted to ensure they can live safely, stably, and with dignity.
People with disabilities are not a small group.
They experience poverty at twice the rate of the general population.
They are overrepresented among food bank users.
They face higher rates of violence, housing instability, and homelessness.
Yet disability remains largely invisible in City planning and budgeting.
The City of Toronto is a major housing provider, but still does not have a clear picture of how many accessible units it owns — or whether those units are occupied by disabled people who need them.
Shelters continue to operate despite long-standing evidence of substantial accessibility gaps.
And poverty reduction initiatives still do not consistently treat disability as a structural driver of poverty.
At this point, these are not data gaps.
They are budget choices.
When the same barriers keep appearing, despite years of reports, consultations, and lived experience, that tells us the issue is not awareness.
It is how the City plans, procures, maintains, and budgets for its services.
Some cities treat disability inclusion as a core municipal responsibility. For example, San Francisco has a dedicated Office on Disability and Accessibility tied directly to the Mayor’s office, with a mandate to coordinate accessibility across City departments.
Toronto does not yet have that level of coordination or clarity.
So this morning, on behalf of the disability community we work alongside, I am asking you to prioritize four things in the 2026 budget.
Disability responsive poverty reduction. Please call out disability in the Poverty Reduction Plan.
Accessible housing as essential infrastructure. Please make it impossible to build housing funded by the City of Toronto that is not accessible.
Thirdly, visibility and accountability for accessibility resources across city services.
And finally, clear municipal accountability for accessibility. When it is not clearly made accountable to someone, it is accountable to no one.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.