Even before we walked into Mitchell’s first NDIS planning meeting in the second quarter of 2018, we knew it was time to start working towards Mitchell living independently of us – for our long-term wellbeing, and Mitchell’s.  We made sure Mitchell’s first NDIS plan↗ included a longer term goal to explore independent living options.

The NDIS does have mechanisms for helping people with disabilities living independently of their families.  The two available in 2018 were:

• Supported Independent Living↗ (SIL), and
• Specialist Disability Accommodation↗ (SDA).

SIL is about funding what the NDIS calls personal supports. This includes things like having a person to help with personal care tasks or cooking meals.  SDA is about the bricks and mortar – in NDIS-speak, “housing designed for people with extreme functional impairment or very high needs”.

When we were dealing with the issue of finding a new home for Mitchell, SIL appeared to be a ‘rebranding’ of the group home model which had been so triggering for Mitchell.  It was also unclear whether Mitchell would be eligible for SDA.

Events within our broader family put us in the fortunate position of being able to buy a house for Mitchell to live in.  Well, when we say us, we mean us and the bank!  We acknowledge not everyone is in a position to do this.

A lot has been written about housing for people with disabilities, so we are going to focus in on two issues that mattered for us:

1. Finding a house for Mitchell, and
2. Setting that house up to meet Mitchell’s needs.

This post will cover the ‘finding’.  A later post will discuss the ‘setting up’.  A quick aside first – there is a business in the NDIS space called Disability Services Consulting↗ (DSC) that publishes really informative articles.  Two articles related to housing worth reading are:

• Support Coordination: House Hunters↗, and
• SDA: Location as First Consideration↗.

Location should be one of the most important factors in … accessible housing.

The second article provides the punch-line for this post – “location should be one of the most important factors in … accessible housing”.  For us, that location needed to be readily accessible to Mitchell’s family and support network.  Using Google Maps, we were able to get a clear idea where we should be looking – see below.  This map also helped make the case for NDIS funding some home modifications.