A Home of my Own

From paper to practice: Understanding and improving the system for renters with disability in Victoria

A VCOSS insights paper

People with disabilities have a fundamental human right to live in safe, suitable and secure housing. This includes the right to choose where they live, how they live, and who provides their support for daily living and community participation.

Yet across Victoria, these rights are not being consistently realised and upheld. Renters with disabilities continue to face systemic barriers, fragmented and inconsistent protections and rights, and inequitable treatment across a range of accommodation settings.

The Victorian Government’s 2021 rental reforms were an important step towards addressing longstanding gaps in tenant rights and protections across tenancy types, including by introducing tailored safeguards for people living in Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA).

Across Victoria, these rights are not being consistently realised and upheld.

While these reforms, which came into effect in 2024, introduced important new safeguards and extended new rights, evidence from the community sector and people with lived experience shows that these changes have been uneven and in many cases limited, and are not yet delivering their full intended impact.

Without further action, renters with disabilities will continue to fall through the gaps.

Issues that renters with disabilities face are not isolated. They reflect systemic failures across housing, disability and regulatory systems that require coordinated reform to address:

  • Inconsistent tenancy protections across different accommodation settings for people with disabilities
  • Limited understanding of tenancy rights and obligations across key system actors including Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) providers, NDIS support providers, and renters with disabilities living in relevant accommodation settings
  • A lack of enforcement and oversight of Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) obligations in both National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) registered and non-registered SDA dwellings
  • Chronic housing shortages and bureaucratic barriers to disability modifications restricting consumer choice and control
  • Inaccessible and complex dispute resolution pathways that prevent people with disabilities from asserting their rights.

This Insights Paper demonstrates how and why the rental system continues to fall short for some renters with disabilities. It considers whether these challenges stem from implementation gaps – such as barries to exercising rental rights – or from enduring limitations in legal and regulatory frameworks.

Drawing on the expertise and experience of community sector workers and the lived experience of people with disabilities, the paper identifies practical opportunities for reform. These include strengthening legislative and regulatory settings, improving coordination across key industry bodies, and leveraging the reach of the community sector. VCOSS gratefully acknowledges this paper was produced with the support of the Victorian Government, as part of VCOSS’ Rental Fairness project, funded by Consumer Affairs Victoria through the Victorian Property Fund.

Recommendations

The Victorian Government should:

  • 1. Strengthen oversight of National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) registered and non-registered Supported Disability Accommodation (SDA) dwellings by improving coordination and information sharing across Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV), NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, Social Services Regulator (regulator of Supported Residential Services), Community Housing Regulatory Authority, Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, and the Victorian Disability Worker Commission.
     
  • 2. Strengthen the monitoring and enforcement capacity of Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) for Supported Disability Accommodation (SDA) to:
    2.1. Ensure all NDIS registered Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) and non-registered SDA are compliant with the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) through education, monitoring, and penalties.
    2.2. Provide SDA and support providers with clearer guidance and training opportunities, ensuring they are equipped with the expertise and skills to foster greater understanding of renters with disabilities’ rights, and to assist them in enforcing and exercising their tenancy entitlements and protections.
    2.3. Leverage CAV’s reach to improve awareness of renters’ rights and rental providers’ responsibilities by co-designing accessible resources with disability organisations and renters with lived experience, outlining tenancy rights, support services, and pathways to exercise those rights.
    2.4. Include accessible and clear guidance to renters with disabilities through the Funda-rentals campaign.
    2.5. Produce accessible resources that explain the various accommodation settings renters with disabilities live in and the differences between them.
    2.6. Undertake a revision of the SDA Information Statements and clearly stipulate that the resident has a choice between an SDA residency agreement and a residential rental agreement.  
    2.7. Produce simple explanations in each SDA Information Statement which outline the differences between the agreements, including the benefits and disadvantages. 
     
  • 3. Ensure renters with disabilities can access the tenancy support they need, when they need it by:
    * Strengthening the capacity of social and community organisations to support renters with disabilities to know their rights and how to enforce them.
    * Referring renters with disability to specialist tenancy legal and advocacy services where needed.
    * Providing adequate and secure funding for disability advocacy organisations and specialist disability legal services to meet demand.

  • 4. Increase access to social housing stock to: 
    * Catch up to the national average in a decade.
    * Meet total demand by 2051.

    All new social housing stock should meet the Livable Housing Design Guidelines Gold level by incorporating this standard into tender specifications, and should incorporate Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) into new social housing developments.

  • 5. Fully implement the Social Housing Regulation Review Final Report recommendations, including those related to social housing modifications and those related to neighbourhood disputes.

  • 6. Explore legislative reform to strengthen security of tenure for renters while ensuring tenancy agreements retain appropriate flexibility, including allowing renters with disabilities to exit without punitive financial penalties, particularly for renters experiencing disadvantage.

  • 7. Ensure fairness in dispute resolution processes for renters with disabilities by:
    7.1 Avoiding punitive eviction processes byextending the time which a decision-maker must allow for a renter or resident to vacate premises after a possession order is made (currently 30 days), as well as extending the time for the issuing of a warrant of possession following a possession order (currently 30 days in some instances) to a minimum of 90 days in all instances.
    7.2 Limiting the frequency of unlawful sublet arrangements and imposing penalties on providers who facilitate these arrangements.
    7.3 Boosting resources to strengthen accessibility within VCAT, including increasing the capacity of the Disability Liaison Officer roles.
    7.4 Ensuring hearing flexibility in both RDRV and VCAT byensuring renters and their advocates can change the mode of hearing (within a reasonable timeframe before the hearing date).

     

VCOSS is the peak body for Victoria’s social and community sector, and the state’s premier social advocacy body. We work towards a Victoria free from poverty and disadvantage, where every person and community experiences genuine wellbeing. Read more.

We welcome the opportunity to provide this input.

This work is authorised by VCOSS CEO Juanita Pope.

PRIMARY AUTHOR

Ella Longhurst

VCOSS acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country, and we pay respect to Elders and Ancestors. Our business is conducted on sovereign, unceded Aboriginal land. The VCOSS offices are located on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung land in central Naarm.