CHIA was pleased to participate in one of a series of roundtables chaired by the Minister for Social Services, The Hon Amanda Rishworth MO and The Minister for the NDIS, the Hon Bill Shorten MP to inform the government’s response to the Disability Royal Commission report and the NDIS review.

This roundtable was attended by representatives from supported independent living services, advocacy groups for people with disability a well as CHIA. The discussion focused on the two reviews recommendations around safeguarding and housing. With regard to housing the focus was on:

• the future of group homes – both reviews recommended that there should be a greater range of accommodation available to people with disability shifting away from group home settings.
• How to improve housing and homelessness outcomes for all people with disability.

In CHIA’s submission to the National Housing and Homelessness Plan (NHHP) on behalf of the Community Housing Disability Network we argued that the NHHP should linked to a  targeted action plan for housing for people with disability. To ensure that the actions are also linked to other services and initiatives that are reliant on or impacted by access to access to housing, this action plan should be developed under the Australian Disability Strategy. We also said that this targeted action plan should be produced with input from people with disability and must set out in detail how the Plan’s broader objectives will be delivered to ensure they meet the needs of people with disability.

The roundtable gave us an opportunity to speak about this alongside other advocates who are supportive of more emphasis on housing. We look forward to the publication of the government’s response to the reviews.