Independent Living: Policy to Practice

Independent Living: Policy to Practice Lillian Buchanan Dr Joanne McCarthy

Outline • Scope & aim of the research • Methodology • Irish public policy direction • Engagement with people and their organisations • Policy implementation nationally • Case study • Recommendations

Scope & Aim • Physical housing focus within the independent living concept • Only part but a basis for building life • Portray implementation when no legal rights based framework • Examine Irish experience in hard times as well as easy times

Methodology • Probe government engagement with people and their voluntary organisations • Authors involvement in consultation structures • Examine policy developments • Documentation • Listen to experience as reported in one example

Policy direction • Government endorses the legitimate expectation of people to be able to live independently • E.g. Towards 2016, National Housing Strategy for People with Disabilities • Range of support measures announced • But legal rights not a feature • E.g. UNCRPD not ratified

Engagement • Evidence of government • listening to the diverse perspectives of people with disabilities, • involving them and their organisations in policy making, planning and implementation, and • following up to ensure good outcomes

Policy to Practice • Are more people appropriately housed? • Is a person-centred approach used? • Pre and post austerity test of commitment

Policy Pre Austerity • No strong focus on supporting people into mainstream communities • Capital funding for housing adaptations and for ‘special needs’ housing – but not significant share • Housing boom produced relatively few accessible units • Increase in PA hours provided but not monitored • Housing strategy for people with disabilities • Limited cross-agency working

Implementation under Austerity • Major capital and revenue spending cuts • Housing Strategy completed October 2011 • More effort at joint implementation • Focus on community living by HSE • Austerity squeeze on community supports • Continued resistance to entitlement to live independently

Pump House on Londonbridge Road, Dublin 4 Opened by DCC in May 2009 with 24 apartments, x of which were designed with and for their mobility-impaired tenants

Local Experience • People with mobility impairments in Dublin City with housing need • Getting onto the social housing waiting list • Waiting on that list, especially given shrinking sources of social housing supply • Cold shoulder for many of those not already getting personal supports • But examples of effective joint working for solutions

Some recommendations • Strategy statements and domestic legislation insufficient • Need operational back-up such as Strategy’s proposed local authority-based steering committees and development of stronger accessible housing standards • Need legal backup such as ratification of the UN Convention and Housing Act amendment to recognise right to independent living

Recommendations cont’d • Need procedures that factor in disability from the outset, such as systematic process to generate more Pump House-type housing • Need proactive voluntary disability organisations to assist people through difficult application processes, to monitor housing policy implementation, and to advocate for better outcomes • Need to implement the National Housing Strategy for People with Disabilities

Thank you • For a copy of the draft paper, please email: • lillianbuchanan@disability-federation.ie

Independent Living: Policy to Practice