SDA stands for Specialist Disability Accommodation, it can be a complicated thing to get your head around, so we’ve lined up some things you need to know about SDA.
1) SDA payments are made by the NDIS to SDA providers, it includes the bricks and mortar of a home, but doesn’t include any supports like Supported independent living (SIL) or community access. These supports are separate so that participants have more choice and control over where they live and the services they use.
2) Other payments made to a SDA provider are the reasonable rent contribution, set at 25% of the Disability Support Pension by the NDIS, plus rent assistance or equivalent for a person receiving an income from working.
3) SDA has very high eligibility requirements, only about 6.1% of those with a NDIS plan will receive SDA funding. The NDIS describes it as for “participants who have an extreme or complete functional impairment due to disability or have very high support needs most appropriately met by a SDA response.”
4) The NDIS does not own or operate any housing solutions for its participants, however this is why they put SDA into participants funding.
5) The process of applying for SDA can be very complicated and time consuming, the most important thing to getting SDA funding is having housing as one of the participants goals in their plan. You must then consider if you housing goals can be met without SDA. Here’s a link to the Home and Living Supports Request Form.
6) SDA homes are specially built to exacting standards, set out buy the NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation Design Standard. The standards stipulate things like corridor size and ramp threshold.
7) There are four categories of SDA homes, they are Robust, High Physical Support, Fully Accessible and Improved Livability. Robust housing is designed to be resilient to reduce the need for repairs and maintenance. The other three categories are based around physical access and varying degrees of accessibility.
8) SDA homes are assessed by an accredited third party SDA Assessor. They’re engaged by the developer or owner at the design stage as well as the final built stage of a dwelling. Only Architects, access consultants, occupational therapists and building surveyors meet the nominated prerequisites to become accredited SDA assessors.
9) The NDIS has estimated that $700 million per annum will be spent on SDA payments by the NDIS.
We hope you found some tips and information, thanks for reading!