Home Adaptation Program (HAP)

Last updated November 8, 2023

Do you have one or more people with disabilities living in your home and want to adapt it to their needs? Find out how this program could help you.

Description

HAP Montréal offers a subsidy aimed at helping you complete adaptation work so that you can access your home, move around in the home, and go about your everyday activities.

New terms and conditions

All current and future applications for financial assistance will be processed in accordance with the new terms and conditions of the program.  If you submitted an application before October 16, you can still benefit from the new program and the options it offers.

Eligibility

In order to benefit from this program, you must meet the following requirements.

Disability

You must be a person with a disability within the meaning of the Act to secure handicapped persons in the exercise of their rights with a view to achieving social, school and workplace integration (RLRQ, Chapter E-20.1)

Persons who previously received a subsidy under the HAP

Persons who have received a subsidy under this program within the past three years cannot submit a new application. 

However, you can submit an application if you are in one of the following situations:

  • Change in your physical or psychosocial condition requiring new home adaptation needs.
  • Need you could not have foreseen when filing your initial application, affecting your ability to carry daily tasks in your home independently.
  • Eviction or repossession of your dwelling by the owner
  • Loss of your home due to a disaster
  • Separation, divorce, or death of a spouse
  • Loss of support from a family caregiver 
  • Legal obligation for the custody of a child under 21 years of age
  • Found social housing in a low-cost housing complex (HLM), a housing co-operative or a non-profit housing complex

Other home adaptation programs

If you have already received financial assistance under a separate program or an insurance or compensation plan, you cannot submit an application to HAP Montréal. 

However, if your application concerns work not recognized under these programs, or if the application you submitted under these programs has been denied, you may be eligible.

Options

Do not start the work until you receive confirmation that your subsidy application has been approved. 

Two options are available: You can have the work done with no obligation to follow up in occupational therapy, or you can hire an occupational therapist to establish your adaptation needs.

Option with occupational therapy support

If you select the option with occupational therapy, the subsidy can only apply to work that meets the needs set out in the occupational therapy report. This also applies to feasible work under the option without occupational therapy support.

The purchase and installation of the following equipment is eligible: 

  • Closed or open platform lift
  • Stair lift on a rail 
  • Inclined platform lift
  • Overhead lift on a rail
  • Automatic door opener, with or without electric latch
  • Garage door opener
  • Communications equipment (e.g., intercoms, flashing doorbells)
  • Electric latch

Financial assistance

The maximum subsidy amount is $50,000 per eligible person.

Option without occupational therapy support

To be eligible, the work must be included in the following list:

Exterior access to the home or building

  • Installing a new outdoor access ramp, including a railing, a handrail, a protective border, an intermediate landing, or directional change.
  • Adapting a projection, notably a balcony or a staircase.
  • Adapting an exterior door opening, including replacing the door and the hardware, widening or lowering the opening, or installing an indoor-outdoor ramp.
  • Installing a handrail.

Movement and interior layout

  • Changing a door opening, including replacing the door and its hardware, and widening or lowering the opening.
  • Adjusting the thresholds between rooms or between different interior floor levels, including the installation of an inclined floor.
  • Installing protruding hinges
  • Installing adapted handles
  • Installing a closet pole or a shelf at an accessible height
  • Installing a handrail
  • Moving or adding a switch, an outlet or a thermostat

Bathroom

  • Replacing or moving a toilet.
  • Custom-building one barrier-free shower per dwelling, including changing the floor structure, if applicable.
  • Installing support bars, including folding bars.
  • Clearing space under the sink without changing the counter or sink, including removing furniture, moving plumbing pipes and replacing the faucet with an adapted faucet.
  • Moving or replacing an existing heating appliance if the replacement appliance has electrical resistance, notably a baseboard heater.

Kitchen

  • Clearing space under a sink, without changing the counter or sink, including removing furniture, moving plumbing pipes, and replacing the faucet with an adapted faucet.

 

Financial assistance

The maximum amount of the subsidy is $12,000 per eligible person. This amount is increased to $24,000 per eligible person when the work includes the installation of an exterior access ramp or a barrier-free shower.

Eligible costs

Some costs incurred to complete an adaptation project are added to the subsidy amount, up to a maximum of $4,000. For example: 

  • Occupational therapy report for purposes of assessing adaptation needs
  • Portion of the permit costs for the eligible work
  • Costs incurred to occupy public property during the completion of the eligible work
  • Portion of the professional fees paid to produce plans and estimates 
  • Preparation of a certificate of location, when required for purposes of planning the eligible work

Submit an application

Eligible people must complete the registration form (in French) and the forms in the appendix (in French). Each eligible person, living in the same home, must complete their own form. Only one option per home, with or without support, is possible.

If you need help to complete your application, please contact us by telephone at 514-588-7098 or by e-mail at [email protected].

The city does not apply a processing fee to applications.

Steps with the occupational therapist

Transmitting documents

Once your application has been received and processed, you must transmit to the city an occupational therapy report establishing your adaptation needs. 

Visit to the home

Following the receipt of the occupational therapy report, the city will schedule a visit to your home, along with your landlord if you are a tenant, as well as the occupational therapist who assessed your needs.

Work program from the city

The city will then send you, along with your landlord if you are a tenant, a detailed work program stating the work required and the maximum subsidy amount that you are entitled to based on your needs.

Submissions

The owner or their representative is responsible for transmitting the work program to one or several contractors to obtain quotes for the work.

Required documents

Each person with a disability must complete the registration form(in French) and the forms in the appendix (in French), if applicable. 

Option with occupational therapist

An occupational therapy report must confirm your adaptation needs and show:

  • the current needs to be met so that you can carry out your everyday activities.
  • your foreseeable future needs and their impact on the adaptations chosen based on the progress of your condition.
  • any psychosocial context that may influence your needs.

To get a report, you must contact your CLSC or a private clinic specialized in occupational therapy. 

Documents for occupational therapists

Are you a health and social services professional and are you required to produce a report under the HAP Montréal program? Please view the list of forms and appendices that are useful for processing files.

Option without support 

Please follow the steps in the Instruction Guide (in French)

Schedule

The work must be completed within 18 months of the application being approved. Upon completion of the work, an inspection by the city will determine whether it meets the requirements of the by-law.

Payment of the subsidy

The subsidy is paid to the owner on presentation of the bills after the work is completed, with the exception of the occupational therapy fees paid to the person with the disability.

Equipment repairs under the HAP program

The city handles requests to repair equipment installed under the HAP program through a subsidy from the SHQ or the city.

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