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It’s a particularly exciting time for me as the Summer Foundation starts the next stage of our journey to ensure people with disability have access to the support they need to control where they live and who they live with.
Our Board has just signed off on the strategy that we expect will see the Summer Foundation achieve its purpose in 5 years. The main change to the strategy that has driven us in the past is the formal addition of “lived experience” as one of our tools.
Our Research Team has been very busy lately with the publication of several journal articles including literature reviews on young people in aged care, outcomes of moving to individualised housing and the use of smart home technology.
You can read the articles on our website here.
Since being set up as part of the Summer Foundation’s response to COVID-19, the Housing Brokerage Service (HBS) has grown and developed.
“We created the team as a COVID response to use the knowledge and expertise in the organisation to help in the emergency situation we all found ourselves in, but the demand and outcomes have been so positive that we are going to continue until at least December 2020, and possibly even longer,” said Project Lead Cath Bucolo.
The HBS works with NDIS participants with complex needs who are ready for discharge but are often stuck in hospital waiting for an appropriate housing option to be found.
All new housing should be accessible for everyone – that’s the message in the Summer Foundation’s recent submission to the Australian Building Codes Board.
The Summer Foundation Board welcomed new member Dean Ireland at its August meeting.
Dean has been a long-time supporter of the Summer Foundation, particularly the work of the Housing Hub team, and is on the housing advisory committee.
The Housing Hub team has this year supported 200 young people with disability and complex support needs to move in to their own SDA apartments.
One of these is Gretta, a 29-year-old who has recently moved into a new SDA apartment in the Sydney suburb of Penrith.
The new Housing Hub is already proving to be a great success – in its first 3 weeks it saw 52 housing seeker profiles added, 309 housing seeker sign ups and 581 inquiries to providers.
The Housing Hub website is the place for people with disability to find the home that is just right, and for housing providers to connect with people looking for accessible housing.
