Our Story

The Housing Hub was started by the Summer Foundation as a social impact initiative to support the development of the fledgling Specialist Disability Accommodation market in July 2017. 

Housing Hub became the new way for people with disability to find suitable housing and housing providers were able to list properties located across Australia including SDA, non-SDA accessible homes, private rentals and properties for sale. By the end of 2017, the Housing Hub had 4 staff members, 26 property listings on the website, and had supported 12 people to apply for SDA funding and receive an offer for a new home.

In 2019 the Housing Hub website was completely redeveloped based on co-design workshops held with people with disability, their supporters and housing providers.

With the launch of the new website Housing Hub introduced a range of features and services with a focus on enabling quality housing options. Some of which include:

• The Housing Seeker Profile feature that allows housing seekers to enter their chosen locations, housing support needs and preferences. When a property listing matches their search criteria, they’ll automatically receive a notification
• Our NDIS Housing Advice Line that supports people with disability, their families, and their supporters to understand NDIS funding streams and help navigate their housing and support options
• A provider portal to manage listings, provider landing pages, market data reports and a variety of services to help SDA providers showcase their properties and find tenants

When the Housing Hub was formed, we had a vision to host a library of useful information about housing options and planning a move in the future. Now we host an extensive database of helpful articles, videos, and information packs while also offering free events co-facilitated by our lived experience team who have experience finding the right home. 

Following the redevelopment of the website, the Housing Hub became a valuable source of data about the accessible housing market.  As a result, Housing Hub regularly publishes reports to provide valuable insights that inform policy makers and stakeholders in the market, leading to developers building the types of SDA people want to live in and where they want to live.

In 2021 Housing Hub launched a Specialist Home and Living Support Coordination Service to provide NDIS Participants with high quality support for Home and Living Funding requests.

Some of our outcomes in our first five years

The Housing Hub has seen over 9,900 properties listed, with over 3,500 properties currently listed on the Housing Hub website across Australia – offering more opportunities for people with disability to exercise choice and control over where they want to live, who they want to live with, and how they want to be supported.

Housing Hub is a social enterprise formed with a focus on delivering positive social impacts for people with disability, the community through the accessible housing market.  Some of our outcomes in our first five years have been:

• Over 4,000 workshop and event attendees received built their knowledge on their housing options
• Over 2,000 people have called the NDIS Housing Advice Line and received individual advice on their housing and funding options
• Our resources have been viewed over 220,000 times
• Over 30,000 seeker enquiries have been created to connect with providers on specific listing
• Over 350,000 property searches have been performed supporting people to find a new home that matches their needs
• Over 900 people have been supported to receive and offer for a new SDA property and get funding from the NDIA to live in the property

People with disability will always be at the center of everything we do and our dedicated teams are committed to supporting people to live a life of dignity with full choice over how to live.

Acknowledgements

The Housing Hub acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the traditional owners of this country and pays respect to their cultures and elders past, present and future.

The Housing Hub also wishes to thank the contribution of our parent organisation, Summer Foundation Ltd. We also thank the Commonwealth and State Governments who supported us at the very start of our journey. Very importantly, we would also like to thank the community we serve, including housing seekers, their support teams and housing providers, for their loyalty and support.