Great design supports great living
The impact of quality, well-designed and appropriate accommodation on a person’s ability to thrive is no better highlighted than by Housing Choices Australia resident, Ella.
Ella found supported disability accommodation with Housing Choices Australia about eight years ago, gaining a new home and the appropriate assistance to live without her parents for the first time. When Ella’s mum, Madel e ine, discovered her daughter would be sharing a new two-bedroom unit, with a flatmate and live-in support worker, she was tickled pink. The family had recently relocated from Sydney to regional Victoria and Madel e ine didn’t think her daughter would have the opportunity to enjoy a space of her own. “We didn’t think it would be a possibility for Ella because in those days there wasn’t much or any supported accommodation,” Madel e ine said. “Ella was the first one to move into the complex and gradually they filled in with clients. “Each unit had two bedrooms and one bathroom, one kitchen and one living area and then there’s a central area for staff – a little foyer and staff room so they can sleep over, and it’s 24/7 care. “But Ella struggled with sharing from very early on. She found it very stressful, sharing a bathroom.” Madel e ine contacted Housing Choices to ask if an ensuite could be added to Ella’s bedroom. Housing Choices worked with Ella to design the layout of a new open-plan kitchen and lounge, bathroom and laundry. “She was very much a part of the process,” Madel e ine said. “She wanted it to be the same as the other units and it is.”
Through the renovations Ella’s previously shared living room was divided to allow both Ella and her flatmate their own space. “(Housing Choices) put a screen door on, which she really needed, and fly wires… things that seem simple but are massive in her life and in ours,” Madel e ine said. “There’s no door on the shower and there’s a chair in the bathroom so she can sit down when she needs to. There’s an intercom, so she can press a button and call the staff, because she’s not as close to the staff as she was.” Since arriving in her newly renovated unit, Madel e ine said Ella was “living her best life thanks to Housing Choices”. “She moved in, and we set it all up for her, and that was it, that was her home. We didn’t have to move her from her community with people she had lived with for 6 to 7 years in order to do this. She didn’t lose all her community connections and all her friends,” she said. “We’re so grateful because it’s made such a massive difference to Ella’s state of mind. She’s houseproud, she does her washing up and hasn’t got the problems with people touching her things. They were the things that really aggravated her.” “It’s just decreased her level of operating anxiety, which has made a difference to what she can be and how she can live her life.” “At the end of the day, we just want her to have as happy and as peaceful life as she can with all of the hurdles that she faces.”
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