Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) in Melbourne, including Robust homes.

SDA is the building; SIL is the support. SDA funding pays a housing provider for a dwelling built or modified to a design category. SIL funding pays for the workers who help you with daily life in it. They are separate budgets, assessed separately, and you can have different providers for each. Most people in SDA also have SIL, but not all, and most people with SIL live in ordinary rentals rather than SDA.

An occupational therapist assesses your functional needs and recommends a category in a report to the NDIA. Improved Liveability suits sensory, intellectual or cognitive impairment; Fully Accessible and High Physical Support suit significant physical disability; Robust suits behaviours of concern that put people or property at risk. The NDIA makes the final decision and writes the category into your plan.

A small group of participants: people with an extreme functional impairment or very high support needs, where the evidence shows that SDA is the most appropriate housing option and other options have been considered. It is not funded simply because housing is hard to find. If SDA is unlikely, we say so early and look at SIL in an ordinary home or other housing paths instead. Our eligibility guide has more.

Yes, depending on what the NDIA funds. SDA can be an apartment for one person, a villa, a house with two or three residents or a larger group home. The number of residents is stated in your plan. Many newer SDA developments in Melbourne's south-east are one-bedroom apartments with onsite support available, which suits people who want their own front door.

You pay a reasonable rent contribution, set by the SDA Rules as a share of the Disability Support Pension plus Commonwealth Rent Assistance, and your own food and utilities. The NDIA pays the provider the rest of the SDA payment directly. We give you the exact figures for any home before you visit, and the occupancy agreement sets them out in writing so nothing is left to memory.

Yes. The NDIS rules separate the dwelling from the support precisely so you can. An SDA provider cannot require you to use a particular support provider as a condition of living there. In our Morayfield home we provide both, but the agreements are separate and you could change support provider while staying in the home. We put that in writing.

Not at the moment. Our only SDA dwelling is the Robust home in Morayfield, Queensland, which is available now. In Victoria we help you find SDA from other enrolled providers and can provide the SIL within it. Our Victorian SIL homes in Pakenham and Traralgon are ordinary houses, not SDA. Current vacancies are on the accommodation page.

Longer than anyone would like. Gathering OT and other evidence can take weeks, and the NDIA home and living decision can take months. Once funded, finding a matching vacancy depends on what is enrolled in your area. We give you a realistic picture at the first call and, if you need somewhere sooner, look at medium term accommodation as a bridge.