Myth 2: A person eligible for SDA cannot live with family or a partner who does not have SDA funding.
Myth:
A person eligible for SDA cannot live with family or a partner who does not have SDA funding.
Fact:
Who you choose to live with is your choice, as long as there is no risk to your health or safety. Anyone you share your SDA home with will have to pay rent to the SDA provider (unless you are your own SDA provider).
Exploring the fact
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) acknowledges that some NDIS participants want to live with family members or other people who are not SDA-eligible participants. Appendix H of the SDA Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits guide explains how this can work, so when an SDA-eligible participant wants to live with family, it's often called an 'Appendix H' arrangement.
If you live in SDA and want your family to live with you, then you need to tell your SDA provider who you want to live with. The provider will give the NDIA a quote for you to live in their home 'with an Appendix H adjustment'. Your SDA provider will also let you know how much rent your family member will to pay – it may be similar to rental costs in the mainstream rental market. Of course, if you own your own SDA, you can decide whether your family members will pay rent to you.
You can learn more about this in our 3-part Rent in SDA factsheet.
If you decide that you would like to share your SDA bedroom with another person, the NDIS will ask you to confirm with your planner in writing who you’ve chosen to share with. The NDIS needs this information to check you’re not being asked to share your bedroom if you don’t want to. They also want to make sure that having more than one person in the bedroom won’t lead to a serious risk of harm to you.
Case Study
Andrea is 33 years old and has cerebral palsy. She currently lives in a one-bedroom SDA by herself. Andrea has a partner, Michael, and they have agreed they would like to live together. Andrea would like Michael to move in and share her bedroom. Andrea contacts the NDIS to discuss this change.
The NDIS are satisfied that Andrea is happy with this change and they did not identify any concerns about risk or safety. The NDIS also did not find any possible problems for Andrea receiving the disability-related support she will require. The SDA provider will also need to agree to this new arrangement. Michael is not an NDIS participant so he and Andrea will need to talk through with the provider and agree on how much rent needs to be paid by Michael.
Any questions?
Contact our NDIS Housing Advice Line on 1300 61 64 63 from Monday-Friday, 10am-3pm (AEDT).
Learn more about SDA
- Find out if you are likely to be eligible for SDA with our easy-to-use SDA Eligibility Checker!
- The Housing Hub has great resources to help people understand SDA! You can learn more about different types of housing and places to live here.
- The Housing Hub provides free webinars about housing options for people with disability and you can find more here.
- To keep up to date with accessible housing news, events, stories and NDIS, updates, you can subscribe here.
- Expert support can make a big difference – as you explore your housing options, get the right evidence together and apply for SDA or other funding from the NDIS. Book a free meeting with our Home and Living Support Coordination team to see if we are the right fit for you.