More housing for all abilities

NEW specialist disability accommodation will be available with two, two-bedroom houses being built in North Bendigo.

Not-for-profit disability service organisation Amicus has been working on the project with the goal of creating affordable and accessible housing for people with disabilities.

President of the committee of management for Amicus Paul Somerville said the project is something Bendigo desperately needs.

“The reason we’re building two SDA units here in Bendigo is because there’s a chronic shortage of affordable housing generally in Bendigo, and especially housing for people with a disability,” he said.

“Prior to the NDIS there were over 100 people in Bendigo who were after accommodation of this sort.”

The SDA units will be built in collaboration with housing provider Haven; Home, Safe and building company Bevnol Homes.

The units will be built with a number of accessibility features and physical support.

“Some of the design features are as simple as having wider doors and corridors,” Mr Somerville said. “But other features are things such as hoists built throughout the property.

“There’s a level of automation in the property so doors can open, benches can go up and down just to make it easier for people with a disability to live a normal life.”

Mr Somerville said the land for the SDA was formally an Amicus support centre which was no longer needed when the NDIS was launched in Bendigo in 2017.

“Several years ago, Amicus support services was actually located on this site,” he said.

“When the NDIS came in, it changed the lives of many people with disabilities so much so that we decided that our services were best delivered not from this support centre.

“Our service support philosophy is to support one person at a time and provide that support in the community, so a centre-based support was no longer appropriate.

“We subdivided the land and the proceeds of that sale and a generous bequest from the George Alexander Webster estate we’ve been able to find the funds to build two SDA units.”

CEO of Amicus Ann-Maree Davis said specialist disability accommodation needs to be on more NDIS plans, especially for those in need of high physical support.

“I think there is a vast unmet need because there are many people with a disability who could really benefit from alternate housing, but it’s not yet funded or articulated in their NDIS plan,” she said.

“That’s another area of focus that Amicus would like to work on so that we can make sure that those resources are matched to people that need them.”

The units are estimated to be available in 2022 and applications can be placed through Amicus.