Guide to your NDIS home and living options

An overview of home and living support options

We may be able to fund different supports to help you to live independently. While we don’t pay for rent or bills, many other NDIS supports can be funded to help with the best housing situation for you.

Speak to your my NDIS contact if you’re not sure which option is right for you. They'll guide you through the process and suggest which options might be right for you. Sometimes you can have more than one home and living support in your plan.

Not everyone is eligible for home and living supports in their plan. You can ask for a decision to be reviewed if you disagree with a decision we have made. 

Tip: Explore other support options.  

You may be able to get help from mainstream supports in your community if you aren’t eligible for NDIS funding for home and living supports. Your NDIS partner can help you connect with other supports.  

What it is like for most participants

We contribute to your disability-related housing support needs

We may fund supports that:

• help you learn to live more independently
• help with personal care, such as showering and dressing
• help to complete tasks, such as assistance with cleaning and laundry
• improve the accessibility of your home through modifications
• provide assistive technology that makes doing tasks around the home easier
• help you find and maintain suitable housing.

You pay your own rent, bills, and daily costs

You're responsible for your day-to-day living costs. This includes rent, groceries, utilities, telephone and internet. In most cases you are responsible for general household items such as a bed, fridge or cooking utensils. There are some times where we may contribute to these costs.

The NDIS supports lists can help you understand the services, items and equipment we may or may not fund.

Option 1: Assistance with daily life (ADL)

ADL helps with everyday tasks in your home so you can live as independently as possible, such as cooking and cleaning or personal care support.

Unlike the other home and living options, funding for other supports can be added to your ADL budget. Talk to your my NDIS contact if you think you may need this type of support.

Help with daily activities is usually provided within your home. It’s often included in your plan if you only need very targeted NDIS support  or if you don’t need support all the time. 

Option 2: Individualised living options (ILO)

ILO is a package of supports designed to help you choose where and how you live in the way that best suits you. These can be a mix of different supports, for example host or housemate arrangements.  

ILO follows a multi-stage process that includes:

• exploring and designing your supports with a health professional
• completing a service proposal for those supports
• putting your supports in place once they are approved.

Learn more about ILO.

Option 3: Supported independent living (SIL)

SIL funding is for a support worker to help you for 24 hours a day 7 days a week. They may help with daily tasks within your home like personal care and cooking meals, cleaning, shopping and developing a routine. They may also help you with developing skills so you can live more independently.

While it doesn’t cover rent, bills or your actual house, SIL does fund the support workers so you can live as independently as possible in different types of housing. Depending on your disability needs, this could be living with others or by yourself.

Learn more about SIL.

Option 4: Home modifications

Home modifications are changes made to your home to help you access and use areas of your home.

This involves getting a part of your home changed to meet your needs. Home modifications can help make it safer for you to move around your home and increase your independence.

They can be minor or complex depending on cost and whether they change structural parts of your home.

Learn more about home modifications.

Option 5: Specialist disability accommodation (SDA)

SDA are specially designed homes for people with very high support needs or extreme functional impairment.

They may have unique features that other houses don’t have. For example wheelchair-accessible kitchen sinks, wider corridors, ramps, doorbells with cameras, and button-operated doors.

SDA is the only NDIS funding that provides the housing itself. It does not cover the supports within the home or cover the cost of rent.

Learn more about SDA.

Option 6: Medium term accommodation (MTA)

Medium term accommodation (MTA) is funding to live somewhere for up to 3 months. It's only available in specific circumstances. For example, if you can’t move into your long-term accommodation because you can’t access it.

It’s usually used when we have approved home modifications and you can’t stay at home while the work is being done. You might be eligible for MTA if you can’t move into your SDA property because it isn’t ready yet.

You’ll only receive MTA as a one-off support. This is because you’ll then move into your long-term home.

Learn more about MTA.

Taking the next step

Talk to your my NDIS contact. When you ask for home and living supports, we’ll talk to you about what options you’ve already explored and what’ll best suit your needs. 

Learn more about how to ask for home and living supports.