Disabled people in Australia living in motels, caravan parks because not enough group homes are available

From The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia:

Caravan parks and motels are being used to house disabled and elderly people because of a chronic shortage of supported care homes in NSW, figures released under freedom of information laws reveal.

The Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care figures, obtained by the Opposition, show the Government has paid as much as $780 a week to house a disabled person in a hotel or motel. The department also relies on serviced apartments and caravan parks across the state when they cannot find appropriate emergency supported care homes for its clients, the documents show.

The Opposition's disability spokesman, Andrew Constance, said supported accommodation was in ''crisis'' in NSW and was putting extra strain on families and the respite system, which was often relied on to ease the load.

''There is no greater test of a government than its ability to meet the needs of people with disabilities, their carers and families in the area of supported accommodation,'' he said.

''You test the heart of the state when you benchmark the Government's performance in this area. It is a dismal state of affairs that the Labor Government of the day is completely failing in its duty of care to these people.''

But the head of the department, Jim Moore, said there were only nine cases in the past financial year where clients had to be housed temporarily in caravan parks or motels.

''We would always find somewhere for them, we would never let them just sleep on the street,'' Mr Moore said.

Mr Moore, who faced a budget estimates hearing into disability services yesterday, confirmed that there were 1076 people who were seeking supported care accommodation but only 118 of those people had been found places.

But he said that not all of those people required full-time supported care and all had a range of needs. ''This reflects the number of people who are seeking supports from us, which include short-, medium- and long-term supports.''

It also emerged Sept. 14 that only 10 young disabled people had been relocated from nursing homes in the past two years despite a target to move at least 130. About 2700 disabled people under 65 are in nursing homes.