All SDA providers have experienced the dwelling you have been waiting to lease for a month that hasn't moved. It's built, listed in the right category, the photos are up, the listing is everywhere. Questions are asked, tours are conducted and nothing moves. However, a similar house two suburbs away fills up very fast, and it's not due to the house.

Typically, the difference lies in how the person is supported, or not supported.

The thing that actually stalls a tenancy

A person doesn't just move into a place to live. They move into a dwelling, plus the supports that let them live in it, and these are provided by different people, on different schedules, and at different times. The housing side is completely sorted out, the support side hasn't begun, and the tenancy is the one that suffers.

This is the structural difference that separates SDA from ordinary property. You don't have to compete with other buildings for your vacancy. It depends on someone else assembling the other half, and if no one is doing that, it waits, and the wait has no end.

What providers can do about a problem that is not theirs

You want to keep your head down. Housing is housing; supports are supports; the separation of SDA and SIL is deliberate and for good reasons that are explained in the next article in this series. But if you stay out of it entirely, your vacancy period is decided by the other people who do step in.

There's a middle ground. You don't choose the participant's support provider, and you shouldn't. But you can ensure the support conversation begins when an enquiry occurs instead of after the tour; you can get all enquirers to confirm that their supports are planned, and you can know who is arranging them; you can refer an enquirer somewhere useful if the honest answer is nobody.

Knowing where the enquiry is stuck

A large number of stalled enquiries are in one of three places. The participant has funding but no support provider engaged. They have a support provider who has said they can't support that location. Or the coordinator has been attempting to put both halves together at the same time, and they are not moving.

One question tells you which of the three applies, and whether you're close or months away from the enquiry. That's all it takes to change how you spend your time.

How this plays out in practice

Imagine an empty house with two bedrooms, compliant, well located, empty for months. Three enquiries have circled and faded away. When directly asked, all three are in the same place: funded, very interested, no support provider confirmed for that area. The home was never the issue, and relisting it would fix nothing.

The answer is not to be a support provider. It's having somewhere to send those three enquiries, so the stuck half can get moving.

Next steps

Ask your current open enquiries one thing: where are your supports? The answers will show which enquiries are live and which are waiting on someone who isn't coming.

Connect Your Vacancy With the Right Person. Support Network gets enquiries from people looking for supported living, and works with participants to find workers where the support side hasn't been arranged. Let us know about your open place and we'll tell you if there's someone we think would fit.

About the Author

Michelle Flynn

Head of Marketing & Innovation | Building Australia’s Connected Care Ecosystem | Support Network

Seasoned marketing and innovation leader with two decades of experience turning complex service organisations into growth engines. Currently Head of Marketing & Innovation at Support Network, where I am building Australia’s most connected disability and aged care ecosystem.
I lead the growth of Support Network’s national Partnership Program — a free, Australia-wide collaboration network that already connects trusted providers, Support Coordinators, plan managers, allied health and community organisations so that when the right opportunity arises, we know exactly who to call. [Read more]

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Filling SDA Vacancies Faster: Why Support Arrangements Decide Tenancies

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