Housing principles for inclusive communities

Peo­ple should have choice over where they live and who they live with.

Hous­ing should not only be safe, but:

  • easy to adapt to meet chang­ing needs
  • access
  • nav­i­gate
  • vis­it
  • live in.

To help achieve more inclu­sive com­mu­ni­ties for Queens­lan­ders, we’ve co-designed 4 hous­ing prin­ci­ples:

  • rights
  • choice
  • con­trol
  • inclu­sion.

Through these prin­ci­ples, we aim to sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve the lives of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple who face greater bar­ri­ers in access­ing safe, acces­si­ble and afford­able hous­ing, and to ensure they have a voice in their hous­ing and liv­ing arrange­ments.

While devel­oped with peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple in mind, these prin­ci­ples have appli­ca­tion for all Queens­lan­ders when it comes to hous­ing design and ser­vice deliv­ery respons­es.

The hous­ing prin­ci­ples pro­vide prac­ti­cal advice for many peo­ple, includ­ing:

  • peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty
  • hous­ing and home­less­ness providers
  • sup­port providers
  • allied health pro­fes­sion­als
  • archi­tects and design­ers
  • builders and con­struc­tion work­ers.

Using these prin­ci­ples will help ensure that a per­son­’s house is their home.

The 4 principles

1. Rights

Peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple have the same rights to hous­ing and assis­tance as peo­ple with­out dis­abil­i­ty and are encour­aged and sup­port­ed to exer­cise those rights.

Hous­ing needs to:

  • be designed for peo­ple across a range of ages and abil­i­ties
  • allow peo­ple to ‘age in place’ and live in their home through all stages of their lives, as their needs change
  • pro­vide for fam­i­ly and friends to vis­it, regard­less of their age or dis­abil­i­ty
  • ensure peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty can access the same hous­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties as peo­ple with­out dis­abil­i­ty and are not oblig­ed or coerced into a par­tic­u­lar liv­ing or shared hous­ing arrange­ment.

2. Control

Peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple have dif­fer­ent organ­i­sa­tions pro­vid­ing their hous­ing and sup­port. This sep­a­ra­tion of pro­vi­sion ensures greater hous­ing secu­ri­ty and safe­guards.

Hous­ing needs to:

  • ensure no one organ­i­sa­tion has undue lev­el of influ­ence over a person’s life
  • enable a per­son to choose their dis­abil­i­ty sup­port provider and change their sup­port arrange­ments with­out this affect­ing their hous­ing and vice ver­sa
  • ensure res­i­dents are empow­ered to exer­cise ten­an­cy rights over their home
  • be a person’s home and not a work­place for paid service/support staff.

3. Choice

Peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple have choice about where they live, who they live with, and who comes into their home and when.

Hous­ing needs to:

  • be pro­mot­ed through var­i­ous chan­nels so peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple can make informed deci­sions about the hous­ing solu­tion that best meets their needs and pref­er­ences
  • involve peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty to have a say about their hous­ing and liv­ing arrange­ment and exer­cise choice about who pro­vides their sup­ports and when
  • reflect indi­vid­ual cir­cum­stances, includ­ing cul­tur­al and geographical/locational pref­er­ences
  • lever­age var­i­ous fund­ing sources to max­imise inno­v­a­tive, viable and afford­able hous­ing solu­tions across var­i­ous hous­ing types (social hous­ing, pri­vate rental, own­er occu­pa­tion and spe­cial­ist dis­abil­i­ty accom­mo­da­tion).

4. Inclusion

Peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple have access to suit­able hous­ing that is safe, acces­si­ble, pro­vides them with path­ways to inde­pen­dence, and enables their social and eco­nom­ic par­tic­i­pa­tion in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Hous­ing needs to:

  • be a person’s home, not a facil­i­ty, and reflect the over­all typ­i­cal design and lay­out that is found in the com­mu­ni­ty
  • be part of the com­mu­ni­ty and close to trans­port, leisure, ameni­ties and ser­vices cre­at­ing diverse and inclu­sive com­mu­ni­ties
  • encour­age a mix of res­i­dents with and with­out dis­abil­i­ty with­in a hous­ing devel­op­ment or apart­ment block, avoid high den­si­ty of peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and an alter­na­tive to group home mod­els
  • use prin­ci­ples of Uni­ver­sal Design and include assis­tive tech­nol­o­gy where appro­pri­ate.

Consultation about the principles

In 2022, we con­sult­ed with old­er peo­ple, and peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and their fam­i­lies, to bet­ter under­stand their hous­ing pref­er­ences.

Peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple told us that they:

  • want ordi­nary, afford­able, acces­si­ble, secure and well-locat­ed hous­ing in the same way as Aus­tralians with­out dis­abil­i­ty
  • aspire to own their home and want greater hous­ing choic­es, includ­ing afford­able rental options
  • sup­port the adop­tion of uni­ver­sal hous­ing design in new pri­vate sec­tor devel­op­ments
  • want alter­na­tives to, and path­ways out of, group homes or facil­i­ties
  • need assur­ance that they are not under threat of los­ing their home, and have long-term hous­ing sta­bil­i­ty to enable them to engage with the com­mu­ni­ty
  • don’t want the same organ­i­sa­tion pro­vid­ing both their hous­ing (includ­ing ten­an­cy man­age­ment) and sup­port
  • want to live inde­pen­dent­ly for as long as pos­si­ble.

Development of the principles

We worked with Queens­land Gov­ern­ment agen­cies, Grif­fith Uni­ver­si­ty, Nation­al Shel­ter and the Queens­lan­ders with Dis­abil­i­ty Net­work (QDN) to devel­op the prin­ci­ples.

The prin­ci­ples align with the intent of the:

The prin­ci­ples apply to main­stream hous­ing respons­es, as well as spe­cial­ist dis­abil­i­ty accom­mo­da­tion.

While we devel­oped the prin­ci­ples with peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ty and old­er peo­ple in mind, they can be applied to hous­ing design and ser­vice deliv­ery respons­es for all Queens­lan­ders.

More information

Contact us

Email: hhsdisability@housing.qld.gov.au