The National Disability Insurance Scheme’s (NDIS) approach to housing has radically changed the way people with disability find housing and the way providers create and manage housing for people with disability.
Managing vacancies in disability accommodation is transitioning from State and Territory governments towards being managed by the market.
The NDIS’ Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) policy and principles of separation of housing and support have brought new stakeholders into the disability housing market.
Together these 2 changes have created a new need for a market driven disability accommodation Tenancy Matching Service. The biggest benefits of this approach are:
The Summer Foundation has 2 housing matching initiatives: Tenancy Matching Service (TMS) and the Housing Hub, a housing vacancy website. These have been developed to connect participants and housing providers for existing and new housing as it becomes available.
The Summer Foundation’s TMS team works directly with SDA providers to shape their tenant selection criteria and provide advice on developing their marketing and promotional materials. Our team advertises vacancies on behalf of providers to promote the vacancies and connect with potential future tenants.
The TMS team assesses applicants and ranks them against the provider’s criteria. TMS uses a tailored engagement approach to connect to local networks to find potential tenants utilising our internal expertise, knowledge and established processes to match people with disability to housing options. This is a resource intensive service with multiple activity stages required to fill each vacancy.
The TMS team is able to undertake TMS services for SDA Properties with 1 or 2 residents. For projects where there are 2 residents living together, we have developed an approach for the tenants to choose their housemates. This is an additional TMS stage that applies to all projects where 2 residents live in the same dwelling.
The activity undertaken as part of the TMS is shown below. A typical project takes at least six months with four key stages of commencing, engaging, reporting and handover:
*Timeframes are averages and are dependent on the schedule set and agreed by SDA provider and TMS team
Prepare a plan showing steps and timing so that applicants can choose their housemates including:
If you would like a proposal from TMS for your new SDA properties, please contact us using the below enquiry form and we will be in touch.
Some general information about our pricing:
Please complete our TMS Enquiry form and provide us with some information so that we can come back to you with a proposal.
Or contact the Housing Matching Team via phone on 1300 626 560 and speak to Jessica Simms. You can also contact us via email tenancymatching@summerfoundation.org.au.
After acquiring a brain injury Will's close-knit family worked tirelessly to get Will home to his own apartment. "He's 27, like he's not meant to be in a nursing home."
Lisa moved into her SDA apartment very recently and has shared her journey and thoughts about how she is enjoying life in SDA.