Posts tagged Bill Shorten

On the cusp – What’s holding back SDA?

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 07.07.2022 (The Urban Developer): Delays in funding approvals, rising vacancy rates and lack of clarity on demand for specialist disability accommodation (SDA) are among the challenges facing providers and investors in the sector. By 2027, the specialist disability accommodation asset class is projected to be valued at around $12 billion.

Seventy-eight percent of SDA providers said the time taken by the National Disability Insurance Agency to make SDA decisions was extremely challenging while 48 per cent said it took at least six months to fill a single vacancy. The recent findings, by the Summer Foundation and Housing Hub, surveyed providers representing about half the total current value of the SDA market—approximately $1.5 billion.

“Any providers mobilising new tenancies for SDA participants [people with disability qualifying for specialist housing paid for by the National Disability Insurance Scheme] over the past 18 months would have experienced significant vacancies, especially those providing single residency high physical support (HPS) apartments,” AccessAccom’s managing director Matthew Valenti says.

On the cusp – What’s holding back SDA

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Why we need to bolster My Aged Care to come at par with the NDIS

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 20.10.2021 (Hireup): George Laszuk is among thousands of Australians with a disability who are not covered by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which excludes people over the age of 65.

He missed the NDIS safety net by less than a year. “It came as a bombshell. I felt cheated. We had campaigned for it for so many years. Until today, it has never been made clear as to why we were excluded,” says Laszuk, who contracted poliomyelitis at 11 months of age in 1951. October is polio awareness month.

He is now experiencing Post-Polio Syndrome and requires a powered wheelchair and assistance with showering and daily chores. His My Aged Care package barely meets his daily needs despite him being in the highest category of the program.

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