Answers To Your Disability Accommodation Questions

To be eligible for SDA housing, you must be an NDIS participant with a permanent disability who has very high support needs that require specialized disability housing.

In deciding whether you are eligible, the NDIA uses these initial broad criteria, which it applies to all funding support applications. The SDA support must:

• Assist a participant to reach their goals and aspirations
• Facilitate the participant’s social and economic participation
• Represent value for money, relative to benefits achieved and costs of alternative supports
• Be good practice and is likely to be beneficial to the participant
• Consider what’s reasonable for parents, carers, informal networks, and the community to provide
• Be most appropriately funded through the NDIS.

The NDIA will ultimately determine if you are eligible based on your specific application.

To be eligible for SDA housing, you must be an NDIS participant with a permanent disability who has very high support needs that require specialized disability housing.

In deciding whether you are eligible, the NDIA uses these initial broad criteria, which it applies to all funding support applications. The SDA support must:

• Assist a participant to reach their goals and aspirations
• Facilitate the participant’s social and economic participation
• Represent value for money, relative to benefits achieved and costs of alternative supports
• Be good practice and is likely to be beneficial to the participant
• Consider what’s reasonable for parents, carers, informal networks, and the community to provide
• Be most appropriately funded through the NDIS.

The NDIA will ultimately determine if you are eligible based on your specific application.

To be eligible for Supported Independent Living (SIL) funding, you must be an NDIS participant with a permanent disability and need high levels of support from people throughout the day, every day, with daily tasks such as personal care and meal preparation.

You may be eligible for SIL funding but not SDA funding.

Anasa partners with a range of Supported Independent Living (SIL) providers. These are separate and specialist organisations with staff trained to provide personal and other care to people with a disability with complex needs.

The person with a disability can choose their own SIL, however agreements need to be in place with Anasa.

To get SDA funding, you must be an NDIS participant and apply to the NDIA to have it included under Capital Supports in your NDIS plan.

SDA is usually assessed for inclusion at existing plan reviews. You submit a change of circumstances application. The application process is extensive and you need to be thorough and address every assessment criteria.
You don’t need to have identified a particular house, apartment, or group home to test for SDA eligibility. You can get SDA in a plan to be able to use in the future. This is particularly important if the health of the person with the disability, or their parents or carers, starts to deteriorate.

Here are five steps to getting SDA funding into your NDIS plan:

1. Get funding and support to explore housing options – a Support Provider and Allied Health worker can be invaluable
2. Develop a housing goal
3. Develop a life vision
4. Assess SDA eligibility
5. Submit the SDA summary and evidence (SDA Housing Plan) to the NDIA.

NDIS participants pay to live in specialist disability accommodation rentals. This includes paying rent and for Supported Independent Living (SIL) services and other living costs.

Taxpayers subsidise the cost of SDA via NDIS payments to the person with a disability.

Rent is paid out of SDA funding in a person’s NDIS plan. They may be required to make a “reasonable rent contribution” but this is capped at 25% of their disability support pension, plus any Commonwealth Rental Assistance they receive.

SIL costs are paid out of separate funding pool in a person’s plan.

Applying for SDA housing can take time because you need the NDIA to approve SDA in your NDIS plan. The application is extensive and you may have to wait until your annual plan review for the application to be considered.

You don’t have to have a specific SDA dwelling in mind to see if you are eligible. You can get SDA in a plan to use in the future.

Start thinking about SDA and getting assessed for eligibility if:

• You are moving, or want to move out of your parents’ home
• Your current housing is putting you or your carers at risk
• You are living with aging parents
• You are living in a group home and want to or need to leave
• You are stuck in hospital with no access to appropriate housing
• You are living in residential aged care.

It can take up to 12 months to get SDA into an NDIS Plan, so you should start early.

The Allied Health Report is a crucial part of an application for SDA housing. It should answer these questions:

– How significant is the impact of a person’s disability on their mobility, self-care, and self-management?
– What supports (other than specialized housing) could help achieve the person’s housing goals?
– What type of housing features, housing size, and location does the person reasonably require to achieve their goals?

It must use recognized assessments and outcome scores that address:

– Environmental assessment including risks
– Current living situation, including risks
– Mobility/motor skills assessment
– Self-management and self-care
– Informal supports, including any risks
– Communication
– Social interaction
– Community access and engagement
– Equipment and assistive technology needs
– A recommendation for SDA.

• It highlights the professional qualifications and expertise of the worker who prepared the report
• It outlines the standing and validity of each assessment tool
• It numbers the paragraphs and doesn’t have tables or text boxes to assist the support coordinator with cutting and pasting parts of the report
• It interprets findings with reference to the SDA eligibility criteria set out in Part 3 of the SDA Rules
• It justifies recommendations for supports with reference to Section 34 (reasonable and necessary), of the NDIS Act 2013