August 2021
The purpose of any housing funding is to deliver contemporary housing within budget in a timely and reputable manner. The development of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) program commenced in 2015 with the Specialist Disability Accommodation Pricing and Payments Framework. It is framed around enrolling existing SDA and developing new SDA dwellings while adding an SDA entitlement to 28,000 NDIS participants both in and entitled to SDA. The budget required to house all eligible for SDA has been estimated at $700m. The NDIS has adopted an open market recurrent funding model rather than the tender approach more commonly used in housing development programs.
The NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) funding methodology, which is complex and unusual, has failed to deliver the required contemporary housing in a timely way. It is now also at risk of exceeding its budget and damaging the reputations of those associated with the program.