Homes for people with disability
Focus on housing people with disability
Over the past year, Haven; Home, Safe continued to improve the range and quality of housing opportunities for people with disability.
This was achieved through the merger with Active Community Housing, the growth of our Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) housing portfolio, completion of the Wattlewood development, and several property upgrades.
We were pleased to increase the number of homes dedicated to people with disability in our affordable social housing portfolio. We know that people with disability are more likely to be in the low-income bracket and disproportionately disadvantaged by the lack of affordable and accessible housing.
Chris Glennen, Executive Director ActiveSDA
Our strategy to improve housing options for people with disability includes:
- The rollout of our SDA development program including our flagship project at Glenlyon Road, Fitzroy North
- Significant expansion of our SDA portfolio through head-leasing properties under management contracts with several leading developers
- Increasing the proportion of affordable housing dedicated to people with disability
- Upgrading ageing housing stock with modifications to reduce the impact of disability and ageing and enhance the safety and independence of our residents
- Developing new housing stock in line with Silver Level Livable Housing Design Guidelines
- Preparing submissions to state and Commonwealth inquiries into homelessness, highlighting the plight of people with disability who are homeless.
ActiveSDA service launched
We proudly launched our ActiveSDA service dedicated to the delivery of Specialist Disability Accommodation in June 2020.
Drawing on more than 20 years of experience providing housing to people with disability, our ActiveSDA team is expert in SDA policy and processes, and provides a seamless service to connect people with high support needs to housing and integrated supports which empower them to live more independently.
Our comprehensive SDA services include:
- SDA provider compliance
- Tenancy and property management
- Vacancy management
- Emergency management planning
- Home modification and assistive technology project management.
This year, we concentrated on applying our knowledge of SDA, embedding the NDIS quality standards and rights-based approach to service, so that each person accessing SDA is supported by effective tenancy management.
Sheryl Batrouney, General Manager Housing and Partnerships
NDIS Practice Standards achieved
We were pleased to receive a glowing report from the independent auditor recommending certification as a registered SDA Provider with the NDIS Commission in May 2020.
The report noted evidence of our applied understanding of the NDIS Practice Standards for SDA, quality indicators achieved across all areas, and no non-conformities.
Certification is essential for registration as an SDA Provider. More importantly, though, quality management is a strategic decision for Haven; Home, Safe to help us improve our performance and provide a sound basis for sustainable and high-quality service development for people with disability across all programs into the future.
Janeen Lynch, Executive General Manager Housing People with Disability
