Opening the Door Project

The Opening the Door project aims to support people with disability to achieve choice and control with their housing options, including through:

• Developing and sharing online resources. You can access these from other project pages to the Opening the Door drop down menu.  You can find some useful resources here.
• Forums designed to both share information and gather experiences
• Support existing and establish new peer networks.

Opening the Door Forums Schedule

Our state & territory forums finished in February 2023, with the hosting of the Victoria Disability & Housing Forum from 13-22 February.  We will be recommencing a series of lunchtime forum sessions on a range of issues soon -  such as sharing houses, and home modifications. Dates will be listed here when finalised.

Want to know more about the Forums? Contact us for further information.

Why this project?

The features of the social and physical environment play a key role in the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of all community members. For many people with disability, the everyday impact of these features can be particularly challenging – even more so when different aspects of a person’s identity can expose them to overlapping forms of discrimination and marginalisation.

We all have to deal with the complexities of the housing system. Various conventions, including the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), outline the rights to adequate housing for all people, including those with disability. Article 19 of the CRPD notes:

1. Persons with disabilities have the right to choose how and with whom they live.
2. Persons with disabilities have the right to the full range of in-home and community supports to realise and sustain their living arrangement of choice and more broadly for social and community inclusion and participation.

Exercising these rights is often not so straightforward. Key issues that we note for people with disability include:

• Inadequate housing supply – for example, through general undersupply of housing; housing unaffordability; inappropriate housing design; and, discrimination in the housing rental sector.
• Inadequate allowance for housing arrangements to be developed around a person – for example, through the tethering of the provision and management of paid support with the provision and management of housing (e.g., with group homes); and, through a lack of opportunities for people to meet and share housing with people that they want to live with.
• Difficulties in navigating the housing system and other adjacent systems (disability, community services, health, legal, financial, etc.) to achieve suitable, sustainable housing outcomes. People need to have choice and control with their housing options. This includes through straightforward access to reasonable and necessary supports – be it through the NDIS, My Aged Care or mainstream services.

Project Partners

and the state & territory members of National Shelter

Project funding is through the Australian Government’s Information, Linkages & Capacity Building program.

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Opening the Door News & Updates

10 May 2022 - ACT Housing Solutions Innovation Group - Terms of Reference approved

R&IA has convened regular meetings of the ACT Housing Solutions Innovation Group (HSIG) since early 2020. The HSIG works, through both direct action and advocacy, to promote the housing rights of people with disability in the ACT. You can access the Terms of Reference here (Word Version).

Contact us for further information on the group, including on how to attend meetings.

Introductory Videos

View the following videos to learn more about the Opening the Door project, as well as for an overview of the Australian housing context. You can find links to referenced websites below the video's. Easy Read guides are also in development for each video – Similarly written descriptions to any slide shown in a video are in development - links to these are provided where available.