Supported Accommodation, Residential Institutions and Other Specific Purpose Arrangements
Despite commitments from successive Australian governments since the 1980s and 1990s to close large residential institutions accommodating people with disability, many people with disability, particularly people with high and complex support needs continue to live in large residential institutions funded by Australian governments.336
While plans to close large institutions are proceeding in South Australia, the Victorian Government has not allocated funding in its 2011 budget for closure and it is not clear when and how closure will proceed. The Queensland Government has indicated it will continue its reform process after opposition prevented residents of one institution being moved into another, but reform plans are unclear. The New South Wales Government is being more deceptive by claiming it has closed 3 large institutions when it has merely redeveloped them into new ‘contemporary’ institutions, with plans to redevelop more.337 The Western Australian Government has provided funding for larger congregate residential facilities that purport to address the ageing related needs of people with disability.338
The pervasive use of a ‘supported accommodation’ framework to address the housing and support needs of people with disability continues to perpetuate the view that some people with disability require special purpose care facilities and arrangements rather than genuine community living options. This view, combined with the lack of available housing and support for people with disability, and the pressure from families and ageing parents for appropriate housing and support options, has focused Australia on funding and providing additional ‘innovative’ supported accommodation models, instead of focusing on genuine community living options that separate housing needs from support needs.339
This has meant that some Australian governments are funding and building new ‘contemporary’ institutions, such as ‘cluster housing’, ‘villas’, ‘special purpose complex health facilities’, special purpose ‘behaviour support’ facilities and ‘special purpose aged care facilities’.340 Despite new labels, these facilities still segregate, congregate and isolate people on the basis of disability and require people with disability to be placed in them in order to receive the supports they need.
Other governments are forcing people with disability to form ‘supported accommodation’ arrangements in order to share support services.341 This practice of forced co-tenancy occurs where a person with disability must live in a ‘group home’ with other people with disability in order to receive supports; where a person must ‘agree’ to another person moving into their home so support can be shared; and where people with disability are ineligible for individual funding because they receive supports through a group block funding arrangement.342
Forced co-tenancy means that people’s individual needs are not met; quality of support is diminished and tenants lose the right to make important lifestyle choices, including who they share their home with. This contrasts significantly with other adults who choose to live in a shared housing arrangement where they are able to interview and check references before accepting someone to share their home. Psychological wellbeing is likely to be compromised in these group environments and this can cause serious behavioural issues.343
International and Australian research and evidence demonstrates that poorer life outcomes and higher risks of violence and abuse for people with disability are associated with institutional and other ‘supported accommodation’ environments, including smaller ‘group home supported accommodation’ models.344 (See also Article 16)
Some ‘supported accommodation’ residential facilities, such as boarding and rooming houses may be licensed by the disability service sector but they do not have the protections provided by disability service legislation or policy. People with disability are often forced to live in these facilities to receive supports and prevent homelessness, or they may be required to live in these facilities as a condition of a compulsory mental health treatment order. These facilities have very limited support services and are consistently found to have high levels of exploitation, violence and abuse.345 (See also Article 16)
