About Us

Our families banded together in 2004 to fight for the construction of cluster housing in the Ryde district that would provide our now 25-50 year old children with suitable supported accommodation nearby.

As we are ageing, we are finding it more difficult to continue caring for our loved ones. We want to help transition our people from home into suitable supported accommodation in an orderly fashion before we die. We don't want to relinquish them to the state in a crisis situation. The present crisis-driven method of allocating supported accommodation is inhumane. Many families in the group are at or near crisis now. One of our original members has died and another has been forced to relinquish care of their family member.

Our vision is clear. We know what is best for our sons and daughters. They want to be with their friends – people like themselves – but also near their families, work placements and day programs that support them.

We have attended 59 meetings in the last two years alone and have been assured by all stakeholders, politicians and bureaucrats that our RASAID supported accommodation plan is not just suitable, but innovative and worth aiming for. We have draft plans drawn up.

RASAID’s Group Home Model falls within ADHC (NSW Dept of Aging, Disability and Home Care) guidelines. The recurrent costs will be lower than those of a traditional group home. Our pioneering model will point the way forward in Disability Accommodation Service Provision and be emulated across the country.

In November 2009, we took our fight out of the seemingly endless rounds of meetings with bureaucrats and politicians and into the public spotlight. It was a hard decision to call for a Public Rally and expose our private lives for all to see, but this is a fight we can’t afford to lose and we felt there was nowhere else to turn. It really is a matter of life and death.

We urgently call on Paul Lynch, NSW Minister for Ageing and Disability Services, to approve capital and recurrent funding for RASAID’s supported accommodation and to override ADHC’s Vacancy Management Policy, so our sons and daughters can transition as soon as possible into their new home in the Ryde area.