Di Winkler's Blog

Designing homes for the whole population for their whole lives

A meeting on 27th October hosted by Ms Therese Rein and Parliamentary Secretary Bill Shorten at Kirribilli House focused on the need for universally designed homes which are built for the whole population to live in their whole lives, which would give people with a disability greater independence and more choice about where they live. Representatives at the forum included those from the building industry as well as disability organisations. Participants agreed to form a working party to focus on a national approach to universal design and achieve substantial progress in six months. This group have set an aspirational goal – all new homes will be of agreed universal design standards by 2020, with interim targets and earlier completion dates for some standards.

Meanwhile, any day now the Victorian Government is expected to invite public consultation on a draft Regulatory Impact Statement investigating the costs and benefits of mandating the following four accessibility features in Victoria’s building regulations: 

• a clear path from the street to entry level  

• wider doorways and halls  

• a toilet suitable for people with limited mobility on entry level, and  

• reinforced bathroom walls to withstand the installation of grab rails.  

It’s proposed that these features will apply to all new houses, all new ground floor units in medium density dwellings and 1 in 5 units in high density developments.

One in five Australians has a disability. This is expected to grow as our population increases.  The Australian Bureau of Statistics predicts that those in our community aged 65 years will increase from 2.3 million currently to 6.8 million in 2051. At this time, 25% Australians will be aged over 65, and almost 8% will be over 85. As people live longer, they are living a greater part of their life with a disability – on average almost 20 years. Given our aging population and the expense involved in retrofitting houses and relocating people when their home no longer suits their needs, universal design for all new housing is common sense. Universal design will future proof social housing stock and enable people to stay in their own home as they get older.

More than 15,000 public and social housing dwellings are being built under the Rudd Government’s economic stimulus plan that incorporate universal design features. This initiative consists of two stages. Stage 1 provides funding for social housing projects that are already in the development pipeline and can be brought forward to commence in 2009 and be completed before 30 June 2010. Stage 2 provides funding for social housing projects following the completion of a competitive process to be conducted by each jurisdiction to identify suitable projects in the market. The housing developed as part of stage 2 of this initiative will incorporate some minimum universal design features. In addition to these minimum requirements, the Commonwealth has set a target of achieving a higher level of adaptability in 20 per cent of the dwellings that are to be constructed through Stage 2. These dwellings should meet the Australian Standard for Adaptable Housing AS4299-1995, Class C.

The housing being built as part of the economic stimulus plan and the current focus on universal design has the potential to dramatically increase the choice of housing available to people with a disability and their families. This provides a once in a generation opportunity to address the huge unmet need for accessible housing in Australia.

The Summer Foundation Property Advisory Panel is an incubator for ideas and creative thinking about integrated supported housing for people with disabilities. The first meeting was jointly convened by the Summer Foundation and The Hon. Bill Shorten, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services in March 2008. The Summer Foundation is collaborating with the state and federal governments, housing associations, property developers and community service organisations to foster the next generation of housing for people with disabilities that is integrated into larger mainstream or affordable housing developments. These integrated models will enable people with a disability to live in dwellings that are close to friends, family, services and their community and will therefore facilitate community participation.

A key benefit is that this model would be able to cater for changing needs. People with an acquired brain injury may become more independent over time and choose to live in their own units after a couple years of shared supported housing, whereas people with degenerative conditions may start out living on their own and eventually move to shared supported housing with a higher level of support in the same residential development.

Ideally, many people who currently live in shared supported accommodation in Australia would have the option to move into their own villa or apartment and receive individualised disability supports.  Where people need 24-hour support on call, people with a disability could live “peppered” throughout a larger apartment complex so that support could be provided in an economic and sustainable way. If this model of housing and support was readily available we may not need to build any more group homes. Most people with a disability could be supported in an integrated living model and we may have enough group homes for people who choose to live in a shared supported living environment or whose needs are too complex to support in an integrated model.

State governments have been developing a similar model of segregated accommodation and support for people with disabilities since large residential centres started being deinstitutionalised in the1980s. In Canada, integrated models of supported housing have been operating for more than 15 years. Some of the requests for submissions for the YPIRAC program asked for innovative models of accommodation and support. This national initiative was a unique opportunity to further excellence in design for the next generation of supported accommodation options for people with disabilities in Australia. However, to date, the options developed have not lived up to the hopes of many of the informants interviewed in this study. Small-scale shared housing and congregate arrangements are the main housing options being offered to this target group.

Useful links

Australian Network for Universal Housing Design

Victorian Universal Housing Alliance

Access All Areas: Report on draft Disability Standards for access to public buildings

Last week a report was released by parliament which makes recommendations for making public buildings more accessible.

This report of the parliamentary inquiry into the draft Disability (Access to Premises - Buildings) Standards makes a number of recommendations which would help the standards better achieve their object and purpose. The draft Premises Standards are intended to make public buildings more accessible for people with mobility, vision and hearing impairments. If introduced, the Premises Standards will have a widespread impact, improving building accessibility for new buildings and existing buildings undergoing significant upgrades. In addition to providing better access to buildings, the Premises Standards are also intended to provide certainty to building certifiers, developers and managers that they are complying with their obligations under the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act.

The Premises Standards clarify the responsibilities of the property and building industry under the Disability Discrimination Act and provide technical details for the design and construction of buildings so that they are accessible to people with a disability.

Following extensive consultation, during which over 130 submissions were received, the recommendations made by the Parliamentary inquiry for improvement of the draft, include:

• requiring access to the common areas of apartment blocks;
• improving access and safety features on all stairways;
• clarifying and limiting some of the exemptions in the current draft; and
• ensuring a timely and effective review process on the implementation of the standards.

Adoption of the Premises Standards would be accompanied by changes to the Building Code of Australia to ensure consistency.

Access all areas report

Build for Life

On 24 April, the Victorian Government announced its commitment to regulate for accessible housing. In the next few months the Government will invite public consultation on a draft Regulatory Impact Statement investigating the costs and benefits of mandating the following four accessibility features in Victoria’s building regulations:  

•  a clear path from the street to entry level
•  wider doorways and halls
•  a toilet suitable for people with limited mobility on entry level, and
• reinforced bathroom walls to withstand the installation of grab rails.

It’s proposed that these features will apply to all new houses, all new ground floor units in medium density dwellings and 1 in 5 units in high density developments.

These features will make these dwellings ‘visitable” by people with mobility impairments rather than ‘habitable’. While the Government hasn’t committed to the full universal design standard the Victorian Universal Housing Alliance has been advocating for, or to universal application of the standard, this is substantial progress towards universal design.

Build For Life

Victorian Universal Housing Alliance

Stimulus Package & Universal Design

The housing element of the Rudd government's stimulus package currently being considered includes building 20,000 new homes for social housing. This would make an enormous contribution to the government’s aim of halving homelessness by 2020. However, this is also an ideal opportunity to ensure that the new housing built is designed for people with all abilities and to suit our ageing population.

The design of most of Australia’s housing makes it inappropriate for many people. Families with children in prams, people with a temporary or permanent injury or a chronic illness are inconvenienced by narrow doorways, curved staircases and steps to the entrance of the house. Building houses with some simple universal design features makes them liveable for everyone, regardless of age, family needs, or the changes a person may experience during their lifetime. It also means that they are visitable by everyone, regardless of age or ability (Australian Network for Universal Housing Design).

While there is already considerable unmet need for universal housing, universal design makes economic sense because of Australia's ageing population. Many of these people will acquire some sort of mobility impairment, as the likelihood of these increases with age. Most will want to live independently in their own homes, in their communities, for as long as possible.

Incorporating universal design into the proposed social housing will enable many people with disabilities to live in the community rather than in a segregated setting which is the predominant model in Australia. Ideally the Summer Foundation (Summer Foundation) would  like to see accessible housing integrated into a medium-high density housing developments where people with disabilities make up a less than 15% percentage of the residents.  This model would include a central 'hub' where six people share support in two 3-bedroom apartments or villas with 24-hour support.  Dispersed throughout the development, within a radius of the larger configuration would be a further 6-8 one-bedroom units for people who are able to live more independently but would benefit from 24-hour on-call support.  In addition to the individual units there could be one or two accessible two or three bedroom apartments to accommodate families where one or more family members have a disability or where people wish to share accommodation.

A key benefit is that this model would be able to cater for changing needs.  A person with acquired brain injury may become more independent over time and choose to live in their own unit after a couple years of shared supported housing.  People with degenerative conditions may start living on their own and eventually move to shared supported housing with a higher level of support in the same residential development.

My architect colleagues assure me that universal design does not need to be more expensive - just smarter.