Short & Medium-Term Accommodation

Searching for STA & MTA on the Housing Hub

Short-Term Accommodation (STA) includes Short-Term Respite Accommodation, which offers short term housing, and support.

The housing listed under Medium-Term Accommodation (MTA) can be paid for using a type of core support funding called MTA funding, which is available to some NDIS participants. Housing accepting MTA funding is usually available for up to 90 days and will only cover the cost of the housing, not the support.

To view all listings on the Housing Hub that are accepting STA or MTA funding please click here. You can also select the 'Map view' option to browse listings in the local area.

How funding works for interim housing

When a person is waiting for their best long term housing option to be ready, they may need interim or temporary housing. The NDIS may fund MTA for this time.

So it’s really important to think about MTA in relation to the person's long-term housing. The person, their family, guardians, health and disability professionals, support provider agencies and housing provider agencies can do these 6 things. They might not be in this order, but they all should be done:

  • Find out the person’s housing needs and preferences and the supports they need, which means really understanding their best long-term housing option and their best long-term support model.
  • Record the person’s housing needs and preferences, as well as the supports they need, in all important documents and keep these at the forefront of all planning, searching and ideas.
  • Search for housing that meets the person’s housing needs and preferences. Learn more about the Housing Seeker Profile and how it can help you search for new housing.
  • Complete all the assessments and prepare the evidence that the NDIS will use to determine the person’s needs for SDA, AT (Assistive Technology/equipment), SIL (Supported Independent Living), if some or all of the person’s supports will be shared, and/or ILO (Independent Living Options).
  • Consider if the person also needs an interim housing option, and include a request for funding (MTA,) for this too – see below for further info.
  • Search for interim housing, please click here, that ideally meets the person’s housing needs and preferences, or is at least a really good ‘temporary compromise’.

When will a person need interim housing or temporary housing?

When a person is stuck in hospital and their long-term housing option is not currently available This could be because they are:

  • Waiting for home modifications
  • Influenced by hospital timeframes, as there could be significant bed pressures in hospitals
  • Waiting for new build SDA to be ready
  • Waiting for the NDIS to make decisions
  • When a person is exiting the justice system
  • When a person’s current living arrangement breaks down (emergency or crisis).

Medium-Term Accommodation (MTA) eligibility 

If the person is:

  • waiting home modifications to be done
  • leaving hospital, aged care or a custodial setting
  • experiencing a breakdown of supports and can’t live in their current home
  • waiting for a vacancy to become available in the place where they want to live, and they have an offer for this place, or
  • waiting for new build SDA to be ready, and they have an offer for this SDA

In these situations, the NDIS may determine it reasonable and necessary to fund the person for MTA funding.

** Important Note: To fund MTA, the NDIS needs evidence that the person has somewhere to move into at the end of the MTA funding. It will not be funded otherwise.

MTA Operational Guidelines and Price Guide Information

The NDIS has MTA Operational Guidelines available on their website. These provide lots of detail about when and how MTA will be funded.

In the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits, MTA funding is described like this:

This support item covers the accommodation costs of Medium-Term Accommodation. The support component of the care should be claimed separately. This support item recognises that there may be cases where a participant will require longer term transitional accommodation before moving into a more permanent home or arrangement (for example, after hospital discharge). Typically, MTA would be used for periods up to 90 days. Participants who stay in MTA are responsible for meeting their own food and everyday living costs from their own income rather than NDIS plan.

Short-Term Accommodation (STA) eligibility

If the person needs short term respite, say for 2-4 weeks, then STA funding may be useful.  STA is usually:

  • A period of respite
  • Includes all expenses in a 24-hour period and including assistance with self-care or community access, accommodation, food and negotiated activities
  • Included in Core Budget of the person's NDIS plan

STA is described as being used for a period of up to 14 days at a time. However, there have been examples where STA has been used for longer.

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