Curious about Nest? Here are the answers to our four most common questions

1. What are Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) and Supported Independent Living (SIL)?

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) defines Specialist Disability Accommodation as accommodation for people who require specialist housing solutions that meet their extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. If you have SDA funding included in your NDIS plan, you can source the SDA you require and choose from the market. The SDA funding you have will cover the home itself, not the support services you may need.

Supported Independent Living (SIL) is funding for assistance with or supervision of tasks of daily life in a shared living environment to help you develop skills to live as independently as possible. The level of funding you receive is dependent on your level of needs, as well as the number of people living in the shared setting.

2. What happens after I apply?

The provider who listed the room will contact you about your application. Providers must adhere to the Nest Provider Code of Conduct, which stipulates they must contact applicants. Nest is a matching service. We help you to find rooms that might meet your needs based on what you have told us. That means that we don’t manage the rooms or make any decisions about whether a room is offered to you. That is up to you to work out with the provider.

3. Why won’t it let me apply for a property I like?

Nest allows providers to upload properties that are not currently available. This is so you can see what is generally out there in the market. If you see a disability home you're interested in but it isn’t currently available, remember to add it to your favourites, so you are notified once it is changed to vacant.

4. Is Nest free?

Yes! Nest is free for everyone to use - providers, people with disability and carers/support workers. There is an expectation that in time there may be some form of cost-recovery applied. Part of the point of the release of Nest is to see how it works in the real-world, what the real value of it is to providers and what it costs to run. There will be plenty of communication about any changes to the cost of Nest and options available to providers further down the track.

Have a question about Nest and disability accommodation? Email us at: info@gonest.com.au

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