Housing
Home is where the heart is, so they say, and creating a home for yourself and your unique needs is very important. Whether you are planning to design or build a house, or need modifications to your existing home, here are some organisations and resources to help you get started:
Design
Lifetime Design provides all the standards and guidelines for lifetime designs and lifetime design homes. They list five key principles that make homes “fit around people – rather then the current practice of making people fit around homes.” These are:
- Usability
- Adaptability
- Accessibility
- Inclusion
- Lifetime value
Read more about their design principles here.
Support
The New Zealand Housing Foundation is a not-for-profit, charitable trust delivering affordable home ownership for low income households. It has already completed a number of its own residential developments across Auckland where shared ownership has proven a very popular programme for first home buyers. Housing Foundation has the backing of some leading philanthropic organisations within New Zealand, and is supported by central government in many of its developments and programmes.
The Barrier Free New Zealand Trust’s mission is to encourage, promote, and facilitate the creation of environments that are accessible and usable by everyone in the community including people with disabilities. This encapsulates the concept of Universal Access for all people.
Resources
Lifemark is the seal of approval awarded to a home which is designed to be used, or adapted for use, by people of all ages and abilities and which has passed a rigorous independent review process. Their website has a number of resources and articles for home owners and buyers, architects, designers and builders including this home design checklist.
Up2date has information to help you live independently at home, including how to modify your home, equipment for the house, support services and even how to get the groceries delivered.
“The Centre for Housing Research – Aotearoa New Zealand” conducted research in 2007 to assist the housing and disability sectors to effectively optimise housing access for the growing numbers of people who will be managing severe or moderate disability over the next twenty-five years. You can download the report: Housing and Disability: Future Proofing New Zealand’s Housing Stock for an Inclusive Society.
Government agencies
If you have a long-term physical disability, and require structural modifications to your home, you may be eligible for Housing New Zealand Corporation’s Suitable Homes service. You don’t have to be a Housing New Zealand tenant – the house can be your own home or a home you rent.
Equipment and Modification Services are a range of services funded by the Ministry of Health. If you or someone in your family has a physical, intellectual, sensory (vision or hearing) or age-related disability, you may be able to get some equipment or modifications to your home or vehicle to assist you.
The two service providers for equipment and modification services are accessable for people living in the Auckland/Northland region and Enable New Zealand for people living in the rest of New Zealand.
Rights
The Human Rights Commission’s New Zealand Action Plan for Human Rights includes a section on housing. It includes this quote from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25(1):
“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
Legally you cannot be refused housing on the grounds of disability, but a private landlord or seller has no legal obligation to provide access. Check out the Tenants Section on the Department of Building and Housing website. If you think you may have been discriminated against, check first with the Human Rights Commission.