The Build section is for people and organizations involved in planning, designing, funding, approving, developing, and building housing. This includes architects, interior designers, builders, city planners, elected officials, funders, and others who help shape housing and communities.
Explore information, tools, and resources to help consider different needs and preferences when making decisions about housing. Learn how choices about building design, accessibility, materials, layout, and community planning can help create homes and spaces that work for more people.
Whether you are planning a new development or improving existing housing, there are opportunities to make housing more neuroinclusive.
The Housing Continuum
The Housing Continuum includes the range of housing types that are commonly available in a community. Autistic and other neurodivergent people exist throughout the housing continuum, from homelessness to market housing, and many options in between. There is no single type of housing for Autistic people. Each type of housing plays an important role for different people at different times.
A healthy housing system includes a variety of housing options to meet different individual and family needs. It should provide people at all income levels with access to safe, stable housing.
Every part of The Housing Continuum offers opportunities to improve accessibility and neuroinclusion.
Homelessness
Homelessness is not housing. It is the lack of a stable, safe, and permanent place to live. This may result in people accessing shelters, temporary housing, living in vehicles, abandoned buildings, inconsistently with family or friends, or in public spaces.
Emergency Shelters
Shelters, like homelessness, are not housing. They are short-term shelter providing people with an immediate place to stay, designed for crisis-support and for people to enter and exit rapidly.
Transitional Housing
Transitional housing is temporary. It is intended to help people move toward stable, independent living, often bridging the gap between homelessness or shelters and stable housing. Stays may last months to a few years.
Supportive Housing
Supportive housing is stable. It includes built-in support for people with chronic and persistent disabilities, mental health conditions, or substance use.
Community Housing
Community housing is sometimes called Social or Subsidized Housing. It is stable housing typically owned and operated by government or non-profit organizations, designed to provide deeply affordable rental units for low-income households.
Affordable Housing
Affordable housing is stable home rental or ownership that costs no more than 30% of a household’s gross income. Affordable housing is a broader category that includes both Community Housing and private sector developments. Affordability is maintained through various mechanisms and may include moderate-income households as opposed to strictly low-income residents.
Market Housing
Market housing is stable private rental and homeownership housing where prices are determined by landlords, developers, and real estate markets without direct subsidies or affordability mandates. Costs fluctuate based on supply, demand, and economic conditions.
What do we know about where Autistic Canadians live?
Canadian data does not yet provide a complete picture of where Autistic and neurodivergent Canadians live across the housing continuum.
Many studies group autism and other neurodevelopmental differences with broader disability groups, or focus on people who receive funded supports and services. This can leave out people who are not formally diagnosed, are ineligible for funded supports, or have lower support needs.
What this means for people in Build roles
Do not assume that one housing approach represents all Autistic adults. Seek direct input from people with different needs and different housing experiences.
Include lived experience
Autistic and neurodivergent people offer valuable insights into how buildings, homes, and communities work in everyday life.
Meaningful participation involves giving people opportunities to influence decisions early, throughout development, and after people move in.
How people are invited to participate matters too. Provide clear information, flexible ways to contribute, accessible meeting spaces, and appropriate compensation to make participation more meaningful.
A question for every Build team
Who will live with the decisions we make, and how are they helping to shape and inform those decisions?
Here are some resources that support any team to meaningfully include lived experience in the plan, design, and build of housing in communities.
Template for inviting Community Consultations
A Toolkit for Equity-Centred Design Research Involving People with Disabilities
This toolkit provides guidance on meaningfully including people with disabilities in the design process.
Introducing: Legacy on 5th
Apply design guidance
Interest in neuroinclusive design is growing, but it is not yet a standard part of housing design and construction.
In Canada, building codes do not include specific requirements for neuroinclusive design. This means that consideration of the sensory needs and preferences of Autistic and neurodivergent people often depends on the knowledge, experience, and choices of architects, builders, housing providers, and other professionals.
Some countries are beginning to address this gap.
In 2022, the British Standards Institution published PAS 6463: Design for the Mind—Neurodiversity and the Built Environment. This guidance supports the design of buildings and spaces that work for people with different sensory and information-processing needs. It covers factors such as lighting, sound, layout, materials, signage, and temperature.
PAS 6463 is voluntary, not mandatory. While not a legal requirement, it provides practical guidance that can support more neuroinclusive housing design.
Without specific requirements for neuroinclusive design in Canadian building codes, people and organizations often need to look beyond building standards for information and guidance.
There is no single solution that works for everyone. Autistic or neurodivergent people have diverse sensory needs, preferences, experiences, and goals.
Design guidance can be a helpful starting point, but the most valuable insights often come from the people who will use the space. Whenever possible, involve them in decisions about design, planning, and layout.
Considerations that make a difference
Lighting
Reduce glare and flicker, maximize natural light, and provide adjustable lighting options.
Sound
Reduce noise and sound transfer, support acoustic comfort and quieter spaces.
Flexibility
Design spaces that adapt to different activities, routines, and needs.
Clear layouts
Create spaces, entrances, and routes that are easy to understand and navigate.
Choice and control
Provide options for people to adjust their environment and sensory experiences.
Privacy and connection
Offer both private spaces and opportunities for social connection.
We have a collection of guides and resources to support more neuroinclusive housing design.
Explore these resources for practical ideas and approaches you can apply.
- Architecture of the Mind: Design Strategies for Healthier Brains (opens in a new tab)
- ASPECTSS Architecture for Autism (opens in a new tab)
- Neurodiversity in Architecture: Designing Inclusive Spaces (opens in a new tab)
- Design for the Mind. Neurodiversity & the Built Environment – PAS 6463 (opens in a new tab)