Mainstream housing and the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability

Abstract

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability’s Final Report identified multiple barriers preventing people with disabilities in Australia from living in suitable housing, and from being able to choose where they live, with whom they live, and how they live. The issues discussed in the Report include tenancy insecurity, difficulties accessing social housing, difficulty finding physically accessible homes, poor response to high rates of homelessness among people with disabilities, and substandard housing and living conditions in supported boarding houses. Addressing these concerns, the Report makes a number of important recommendations that span a range of housing tenures and both housing and disability policies and strategies. Focusing primarily on “mainstream” housing options, where the majority of people with disabilities live, in this article I argue that if implemented, these recommendations will have a transformative impact on housing for people with disabilities, and on people with intellectual disabilities more specifically. However, I also argue that for this to happen, a new supply of affordable housing needs to be developed and delivered at scale, and note the Commission’s aversion from directly tackling this issue in its recommendations.