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Bernie, there's your watering can, Bernice. Water this garden, Bernice. In a quiet suburban home in outer Melbourne, Jason Toppin has put down roots. We need to put these things in the second in the ground. He's lived here with the same flatmates for almost 12 years. This place means a lot to me. It's a part of me that no one can ever take away. I do cleaning kitchen in the morning. Yes. Um set table. Mhm. And load um dishwasher. The 47-year-old lives with a vision impairment and intellectual disability.
Terry's room and His housemates are of similar age and have similar disabilities. I'll just come behind you. The home run by St. John of God Accord is funded through each resident's National Disability Insurance Scheme plan. This is my happy place. This is a sign. Uh we forgot You did forget. It's given them more than just a roof over their heads. Where's your favorite spot in the house? No, I mean I do my sitting here with the guys. It's very warming warm warmly family-like and the staff do a good job here.
Homes like this have become the dominant housing option in Australia for people like Jason. But not every group home is as happy as this one. During its four-year inquiry, the Disability Royal Commission scrutinized residents' experiences of group homes, hearing stories of abuse, violence, and neglect. My daughter lives her whole life in fear of being punished because she's had so much of it. When she lived in the group home, she had bones broken, skin torn, money stolen, multiple physical abuses.
Sometimes he would laugh while sexually assaulting Ruth in this manner. In their final report, four of the six commissioners called for group homes to be phased out. Group homes in many respects have been the default option, and what we need to see is a growing of alternative options, so people have choice about how they live and where they live. Assistance in group homes, known within the NDIS as supported independent living, cost the scheme $16.6 billion a year. There are people currently living in group homes that could be living more in the community and could be living more
cost-effectively for the government as well. Okay. What should we get? Uh Deciding on Um yeah. Megan Cain is all about being a part of her community. So, we use the little hangers. Yes. For the little baby tops. You're a nice person. Thanks, Megan. She volunteers at her local op shop Hello. and has an active social life. Hello. I'm terrible at sewing. I made it. Did you save me some? Yes, at home. And values making her own choices. $2. I like it.
Think. That includes choosing where she lives. Hi. Hello. Come in. I'm Naz. And who she lives with. This is my housemate, Isabel. This is known as an individualized living arrangement where the NDIS makes it possible for someone with mild to moderate disability to live independently by setting them up with a flatmate. She's just a really considerate housemate. It's really a lovely arrangement. Where it's wet. Megan receives funding from the NDIS for support with daily tasks.
All right, thank you. Goodbye. Bye, Anna. Isabel's role is different. She's not a support worker. Her rent is subsidized in exchange for companionship, having someone in the house overnight, and informal guidance, such as prompts with daily tasks. Meegan, bins tomorrow? Yeah. So, it's just the black bin or the green bin? Hello. Oh, hi Meegs. What are you doing? Nothing. Do you want to come over for a hot chocolate? Yes. Oh, you're bringing your own milk, Meegs. The people Meegan now knows in the community check in on her and help her live an independent life.
Now, Meegan, we're going to have We'll have the tiramisu we made yesterday. Yes. Oh, that's a good idea. Meegan's service provider says the average annual cost of the 21 homes they oversee is less than $170,000. One to three support in a group home would be more than $230,000 per person. Despite the cost benefit of the arrangement, the NDIS has funded fewer and fewer people to take up individualized living options. Two years ago, the NDIS approved more than 1,600 participants exploring this living option. Last quarter, that number was only 338. Advocates say because the rates paid for these services have not kept pace with inflation, demand has fallen.
We'd like to see the agency carve out a place um for these kind of arrangements to grow and to um be recognized as a cost-effective and um really beneficial arrangement for participants. It would be very possible, I think, to both deliver back better outcomes for disabled Australians, to deliver a more diverse range of options that people can choose from at various life stages, but also to do that in a way where the costs are predictable, affordable, and potentially cheaper than they are at the moment for government. The central philosophy here is choice and control, and that uh as much as anything should include uh living options.
The government recently asked the disability community for their suggestions on how to improve housing services, but made no mention of alternatives to group homes. Should providers be pressured to expand their offerings outside of things like group homes? Look, I don't want to preempt that. I imagine that was a very significant theme of the consultation. It's not the model of housing, it's the quality of everyday support that makes the most difference to people's lives. Final choice entry C6.
This answer to disability housing is all about cars. The Brisbane not-for-profit offers a drop-in and on-call support service, billed in 15-minute increments. The flexibility is life-changing for our customers. They really appreciate the short-duration, bite-size supports that they can receive from us, rather than having to have people in their house for longer periods of time than they need. As night falls, support workers fan out to homes across the city. Hello, Andy from Max speaking. Clients can call if they need unplanned assistance.
Yeah, maybe 20 minutes. Or schedule a regular service, as long as it's not for more than 1 hour. Katie, it's Chloe. Katie Ferguson recently graduated with a master's degree, something she couldn't do without flexibility. So, I go to bed somewhere between 11:00 and 1:00. The reason for that is because my classes at university never finish before 10:00. Can I please go to bed, please, Chloe? For assistance into bed and unscheduled support during the night, Katie pays just over $50,000 annually from her NDIS plan. Okay, we'll stop it there. If she paid for sleepovers every night of the year, it would cost more than double that. just put it down a little bit more.
Our support model stretches the funding a lot further. Okay, good night, Katie. Good night, say driving. We're able to bill the customers for the time of support that they received in which makes it more much more cost-effective for them. There is some evidence about alternatives for people who don't need 24-hour support, people with milder intellectual disabilities, but not for people with more severe profound disabilities. The mobile service is soon expanding to the Gold Coast. It wants to see similar services made available across the country so people with disability have more choice in how they live.
Megan is clear about how she wants to live. How would you feel about living in a group home? I like this house better than home. I want to go to for walk and chat to next door. I like going swimming with my friend Gus and take me to the netball, everything. Bye, guys. Love you.
