Thinking of moving out of home – maybe this will help

We know a lot of people who want to move out of home. When we talk to them about housing issues we get to see a lot of gaps and we want to do something about this; to support people who we know. So, we are going to build a house, maybe two on the one site. But it is not for people to live in permanently.

The main things we want this house to do are

• Respond to a lack of transition opportunities, to have a place where individuals can practice and see what it is like to live away from home and their family

• Create a place where skill development can happen before you move. Its fine to practice cooking in a day program, but the closer to real life things can be practiced the better it is. This house will be specifically designed and fitted out to facilitate the development of essential life skills in individuals. It will provide an environment for participants to learn and practice skills required for managing a home and keeping positive relationships with housemates. We will also use the house for therapists to be able to conduct functional assessments of living skills in real time environments, so that there is a much better and sensible outcome for individuals.

• So people get a chance to learn before they make the big move, what it’s like to share a house with someone else, often a mate who you have planned to move in with. It will be a place where people, can move in with potential housemates for a while so they can learn about each other, and see who it makes sense to live with.

• The house will be large and separate enough to be able to also respond to people who need emergency accommodation support because of a family breakdown or illness. We are sick of people who we know and love, being placed in hospitals because there is nowhere else for them to go, and we don’t want that to happen to our participants.

This is only a very brief outline of the project. This is a big project with very formal plans, an architect who specialises in community housing leading the project, and a couple of years of planning and development ahead of us. The architect, who specialises in NDIS and community housing, tells us there is nothing else like this around so we need to put a lot of thinking to get it right. To do that thinking we have a project team which has on it, external specialists, Milparinka managers, committee of management and family members.

Yes, if you are wondering it will cost a lot of money. It is being paid for from the proceeds of the sale a house we owned in Richmond and have now sold, and from reserves we have been putting aside for major projects.