Home and living submission
This submission gives advice to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Review. This report focuses on how to improve home and living supports.
The term home and living, includes:
supported independent living (SIL) - support to live in your home, usually for people with higher support needs who live with others with disability.
medium-term accommodation (MTA) – funding for somewhere to live if you can't move into your long-term home because your disability supports aren't ready.
independent living options (ILO) - supports to live the way it suits you, but this funding does not pay for the home.
specialist disability accommodation (SDA) - types of housing that suit people with high support needs.
The Independent Advisory Council (IAC) wrote this submission. When we say we, we mean the IAC.
Our recommendations
Short term
We recommend the Australian Government:
Talk about housing with state and territory governments to get funding for public and social housing that includes people with disability.
Should be more involved with making sure SDA properties are maintained and upgraded.
Introduce new models to increase home ownership for people with disability.
Reform the Specialist Disability Trust rules to bring them in line with the NDIS and remove means testing.
Ensure participants who are over 65 years have access to community housing options and not aged care.
Create a working group to focus on issues with home and living.
Create better tools to improve the safety of participants living in shared group homes.
Long term
We recommend the Australian Government co-design a home and living strategy. The 10-year strategy should focus on reforms for shared housing and the group home shared support model. The strategy should consider:
The supply of affordable quality housing for people with disability.
Making sure people have choice and control for home and living decisions.
There are opportunities for participants who want to explore other housing options. This includes ways to transition into new housing.
Grouping state and territory housing programs and local government housing.
Ways to best manage providers.
What we found in our research
We have raised concerns about the way home and living supports work as part of the NDIS. Our reference groups share our concerns. These concerns relate to National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) processes as well as the NDIS market.
Our research shows:
Participants do not have certainty about their home and living supports funding. They also don’t have a say in the type of home they want to live in.
There is poor information about housing and options.
There is poor or no connection between NDIS, state housing and community housing.
Participants over 65 years are discouraged from SDA and other options and encouraged by the NDIA to go to residential aged care (RAC).
There are too many delays in decisions on home modification, and home and living funding.
There is a lack of safety measures for people living in group settings.
Medium-term accommodation needs improving to help participants in hospital or RAC to find a permanent home.
Special Disability Trust needs reform.
Home ownership is at times out of reach for many people with disabilities.
People do not understand ILO properly.
The way group homes are managed should be looked into as part of reform.
Our research found the following SIL issues:
There are cost increases and poor outcomes for participants.
The service model is out of date and ineffective.
People with disability who have a goal to live alone, are often approved for shared accommodation instead.
Often NDIA and providers make SIL decisions without participants.
There is an increase of boarding house style accommodation.
Our research found the following SDA issues:
There is an increase of SDA apartments but no other design categories.
The NDIA often enrolls inappropriate group homes as SDA.
Participants are not involved in decisions, location, and type of SDA.
Community housing providers are struggling to build SDA.
There is a lack of maintenance and upgrades for current SDA properties. This includes SDA which are old houses.
There is no partnership with community organisations or local government.