• Table of Contents
• Disability Investment Group
• Executive Summary
• National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) – A Possible Model
• Principal Recommendation
• Summary of Other Recommendations
• Section I
• Part 1: Experience of Disability in Australia
• Part 2: Need for Change
• Section II
• Part 3: Establishing a New National Disability Insurance Scheme
• Part 4: Ensuring Income Support is Adequate
• Part 5: Improving savings and taxation incentives for privately - funded services
• Section III
• Part 6: Providing More Housing for People with Disability
• Part 7: Offering Better Employment Opportunities
• Part 8: Building Research and Best Practice
• Appendices
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Appendix D
• Appendix E
• Appendix F
• Appendix G
• Appendix H
• Appendix I
• Appendix J

The Way Forward – A New Disability Policy Framework For Australia

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Part 6: Providing More Housing for People with Disability

Key DIG findings

Of all disability services, the most significant unmet demand and the greatest anxiety for families relates to housing and accommodation.

Most people with disability face significant challenges securing private housing. This is because the disability housing sector is not sufficiently profitable to attract purely commercial investment. People with disability usually have to rely on the capabilities, resources and determination of their own families or groups of parents to develop solutions.

Traditional approaches to housing support for people with disability have tended to result in disjointed housing services and support. Housing often reaches a crisis point when informal care is no longer available, such as when a family carer dies.

The Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments provide significant funding for community and public housing for people with disability. People with disability constitute an increasing proportion of those in public housing, from just over 20 per cent in 2001-02 to almost 40 per cent in 2005-06.

The Commonwealth Government also pays income support supplements to those in the private rental market, for example, Rent Assistance payments from Centrelink.

Governments fund shared supported accommodation under the National Disability Agreement, with costs of the dwellings met through a mixture of government funding, contributions from disability organisations, philanthropy, and fund raising by parents and other supporters. Occasionally, families can also access government funds to contribute to home modifications so that a person with disability can be cared for at home.

Developing housing stock for people with disability has traditionally happened as part of the disability service system, rather than as part of a broader approach to affordable housing. This specialised approach initially led to accommodating people with disability in large institutional homes. In recent decades, Australia has seen a shift towards shared accommodation models distributed through the broader community and more innovative models of accommodation.

The quality of care and support within current shared and supported accommodation may also not meet expectations. Because of shortages, people can find it difficult to contest or question service providers that deliver part or fully-funded accommodation. This often leads to ‘client capture’.

An alternative approach is to provide more choice, by separating the care and support from the physical infrastructure or dwelling. This recognises that preferred suppliers of accommodation and care and support to people with disability may not be the same organisation. In this alternative framework, providing housing should form part of an affordable housing strategy because disability is just one among many possible causes of poverty. However, the housing must be accessible.

Building regulations

Urgent government action is needed as voluntary building standards for accessible and adaptable housing have failed to ensure that most new dwellings are suitable for people with disability, despite the predicted rapid increase in the proportion of the population with disability over the next 40 years.

Mandatory national building standards are needed, which specify design principles and requirements that accommodate people with disability and facilitate ageing in place. This recognises that as people age they will acquire disability and that by 2051, 27 per cent of the population will have disability.

The DIG recommends that as a first step, a set of no-cost and low-cost requirements become mandatory in all new residential buildings. A minimum set of requirements would include:

• a continuous accessible path of travel from a parking area or allotment boundary and a level entry into the home;
• a bathroom on the ground floor with reinforced walls, to allow for future adaptation and a hobless, step-free shower recess;
• external and internal doorways with a minimum 850mm width;
• corridors on entry level with minimum 1,000mm width;
• space on the ground floor capable of use as a bedroom and living area; and
• a kitchen area capable of adaptation to provide sufficient turning space between benches.

National Rental Affordability Scheme

The recently introduced National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) could help lift the level of private investment in housing for people with disability. Under the NRAS, private investors receive tax incentives to build new affordable rental properties. However, the DIG recommends a number of refinements to improve the scheme’s responsiveness to people with disability.

Given the additional costs for establishing disability accessible or adaptable accommodation, and the higher ongoing costs of managing tenancies involving people with disability, applying the standard level of incentive to housing for people with disability will not necessarily attract any additional investment in appropriate disability housing.

Consistent with the Commonwealth Government's social policy objective of improving the housing and other circumstances of people with disability, it is important that the NRAS is modified to reflect the higher costs of housing for people with disability. One approach would be to set an additional level of subsidy in return for a guaranteed minimum number of people with disability housed on a project-by-project basis.

The DIG notes the target of 50,000 affordable rental dwellings by 2012 and short timetable for expressions of interest and lodgement of tenders. Therefore, a trade-off is likely between meeting the volume targets and adaptability and accessibility standards, given that much of new housing stock currently under construction is not properly accessible.

Given the ageing population and people acquiring disability as they age, and the social and economic benefits of people ageing in place, it is vital that new housing stock built through the NRAS is accessible and should at least conform to the minimum set of building regulations outlined above.

The DIG notes that eligibility for NRAS is modelled on eligibility for Commonwealth Rent Assistance or for the low income Health Care Card. The DIG suggests looking again at the eligibility provisions for tenancy under the scheme, particularly as they relate to people with disability who have taken up employment. Otherwise, this group will face even higher effective marginal tax rates if they enter the workforce. In this way, the NRAS may unintentionally act as a further barrier to the employment of people with disability.

The DIG made these suggestions to FaHCSIA in May 2008, in response to the NRAS technical discussion paper. (A copy of the letter is at Appendix H)

Social Housing Initiative—Nation Building - Economic Stimulus Plan

In February 2009, the Commonwealth Government also announced the provision of additional funding for social housing under the Nation Building - Economic Stimulus Plan. This initiative will provide funding of $6 billion over three and a half years from 2008-09 to 2011-12 for the construction of new social housing and a further $400 million over two years for repairs and maintenance to existing public housing dwellings. It is being conducted in partnership with the State and Territory Governments. It will provide a boost to public housing and housing administered by the not-for-profit community sector and is designed to assist low income Australians who are homeless or struggling in the private rental market.

The DIG notes that under this initiative, Commonwealth guidelines include a requirement that most constructed dwellings adhere to universal design principles that facilitate better access for people with disability and older people. Additionally, the government is targeting a higher level of adaptability in at least 20 per cent of these dwellings which will need to meet the Australian Standard for Adaptable Housing AS4299-1995, Class C.

Designed to increase affordable housing supply, these new schemes have the potential to contribute to meeting the housing needs of people with disability, provided the housing is accessible. This highlights a broader housing policy issue. Despite a voluntary disability access and adaptability building code, most new private dwellings are not accessible or adaptable. This policy failure contributes to increased costs in the long-term, especially as the proportion of the population with disability will increase rapidly over the next 40 years. The policy is also inconsistent with ageing in place objectives.

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• Next: (Part 7: Offering Better Employment Opportunities)

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