If housemates have a hard/sleepless night with Ad then they have their next scheduled night off and we call in backup overnight support. Flexibility, organisation, forward planning, backup support – all key!Īnother challenge has been backup overnight support.The house isn’t just Adam’s house – it’s theirs too and they need to feel ownership and take on the responsibility of maintaining their household. It’s important that housemates feel valued and supported.It’s hard to engineer a good house dynamic – it’ll happen organically or not at all.The Lifestyle Coordinator role is crucial to the success of this model so it’s important to spend time and money finding and training the right person.Good communication between the LC, support workers, housemates and family is HARD and continues to be hard but is essential.

Sometimes it’s necessary to ask housemates to leave if it’s not working out.Include housemates in finding and choosing other housemates along with Adam! If they don’t all get along then the whole dynamic of the house is negatively affected.A bond and written housemate agreement is absolutely necessary.There’s usually about a 3 month period of adjustment when new housemates move in – it takes time for Adam to get to know and feel comfortable with housemates.It usually takes 2-3 months to find and get to know new housemates before they can move in. Finding housemates can be time consuming but it’s worth waiting for the right people to come along (they will eventually).Talk to potential housemates on the phone before meeting them in person – it’s a big enough job organising to meet people and this streamlines the process.Be specific in advertising for housemates – too many people leap at the subsided rent and back out when they hear what’s involved.There has been no challenge we haven’t been able to overcome – or at least manage. There is a lot of ongoing work involved in maintaining this model, but despite this and all the challenges, we have never considered throwing in the towel. We always knew that planning the move was only the beginning of a big, exciting, rewarding, hard, daunting, and experimental enterprise. There have been periods of stability and continuity, but also times of great instability – numerous housemate changes (more than 10!), new LCs and support workers, sleepless nights, health issues, rent increases, NDIS battles, and changing household dynamics. Of course, there have been (and will continue to be) many challenges for Adam, his family, circle of support, Lifestyle Coordinator (LC), support workers and housemates.

Tadam home