Small scale Specialist Disability Accommodation is someone’s home, not a hospital, nor an institution. We constantly see terrible SDA where:
- bathrooms have coloured seats and look like they are from a commercial building, hospital or institution
- there are massive exit signs everywhere (the people living there know how to get out)
- there is signage and things everywhere to keep people “safe”
- they look like someone’s workplace
SDA is supposed to be someone’s home. It should feel like it. Some SDA advocates push toward Class 3 shows an abject misunderstanding of what people living in the places want. We constantly hear people living with a disability tell us that they are sick and tired of people trying to keep them safe. Yes safety is vital but everyone takes risks everyday and where all the extra signage and things either makes it look like an institution or makes it obviously disability accommodation from the street it annoys many participants. There are enough of these institutional style places being built anyway, participants can vote with their residency.
Houses of 3 Residents or Less, Apartments or Villas Shouldn’t Be Class 3
SDA is someone’s home. The term accommodation is a misnomer.