Media Release
Attention Chief of Staff / News Editor
Sunday, May 7, 2023
PROPOSED CRACKDOWN ON NDIS RORTING AND WASTE, GOOD NEWS BUT DISABILITY HOUSING IN QUEENSLAND FACING BIG DEMAND SHORTAGES
One of Australia’s largest special disability accommodation housing providers says a proposed crackdown on NDIS rorting will be welcomed by the disability community but any funding cuts to disability accommodation in the current under pressure rental and housing market would be a disaster.
The NDIS forecasts that demand for Special Disability Accommodation (SDA) will increase by over 60% over the next seven years.
Emma Hocking, CEO of SDA Smart Homes which provides special disability accommodation in Queensland says a more efficient use of available funds – and not a cutback in funding – would be a welcome initiative in Tuesday’s Federal Budget.
Hon. Bill Shorten, Federal Minister for the NDIS, announced recently that a new taskforce would be formed to crackdown on alleged rorting within the NDIS.
SDA Smart Homes has been providing SDA accommodation since 2019 when the SDA programme first started, with its aim to provide specially built and designed housing for people with high end physical impairment. The SDA programme receives $700m a year in NDIS funding.
“Our concern is that a small number of inexperienced builders and property marketers that are not SDA Housing providers nor have any experience operating within the NDIS, have no ability to source participants or work with carers and leave a trail of confusion in the SDA space. We receive many calls from investors who have dealt with inexperienced builders and marketers and they have left a lot of problems in their wake,” Ms Hocking said.
“We would welcome any announcement that steps are in play to crack down on this.”
Ms Hocking said demand for SDA accommodation in Queensland was at an all time high.
“For many people in Queensland who qualify for SDA accommodation, they have nowhere else to go other than public hospitals or nursing and aged care accommodation in Queensland because of their need for 24 hour care.
“That is why special disability accommodation was introduced and the demand for this accommodation continues to grow and will increase by 60% over the next seven years, based on figures from the NDIS. The challenge for the NDIS is not to cut funding, but to make current expenditure more efficient in the area of need.”
Ms Hocking has previously warned that people with severe physical impairment in Queensland are being frozen out of the housing market because not enough land is being made available by property and land developers to meet the specific needs of the physically impaired.
“There is a real problem in the Queensland region in finding enough of the right type and size of land to provide SDA housing.”
“The land is there but land developers have favoured the owner occupier market and have shunned the investor market over the last few years and that has impacted on the SDA program. It would be a disaster in the current rental and housing market if that continues.
“Many of the disabled who qualify for our high care purpose built homes are in wheel chairs so the land needs to be flat or flattish and the size required is between 400 square metres and 600 square metres.
“Demand for these properties is at an all time high and it is time for property and land developers to show some heart and free up more land for SDA Homes. In doing so, they are also freeing up public hospital beds and beds in nursing homes and aged care facilities in the Queensland region.”
