Oversight of boarding houses.

HPLS’ submission focuses on services targeting or available to residents of licensed residential centres (LRCs), otherwise known as licensed boarding houses.  These services are provided or funded by Ageing Disability and Home Care (ADHC) and include the Active Linking Initiative (ALI), Home and Community Care (HACC), and the Screening tool for entry to LRCs.  The value and efficacy of these services are undermined by the following on-going systemic issues in the LRC sector: weak and out-dated legislation for the licensing of LRCs, ADHC’s failure to rigorously monitor LRC compliance with license conditions, and LRC residents’ lack of tenancy rights.  Although the Boarding House Reform Program has led to improvements in residents’ living conditions, there is concern that ADHC’s drive to reform the LRC sector has wavered.  HPLS’ overall ability to comment on ADHC’s service delivery was impeded by the lack of publicly available information regarding the costs of these services.  This is not in keeping with the principle in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that information should be disseminated to enable assessment of the Convention’s implementation.