RIKKI

I’m Rikki, and I’m 36 years old. I live in my Mum’s garage, which is a ‘granny-flat’ type of arrangement. I can’t access the main house that my Mum lives in because my wheelchair is too big. The garage isn’t where I want to live. I want to be independent, to have some freedom and to make my own choices. I can’t do that while I’m living in the garage. I’ve had my funding approved for SDA housing but I am still waiting to move into a suitable place.

It’s been tough, I was already not in a very good head space to begin with, but it was very much just keep swimming, just one more day to get through it. It was a very hard situation, acquaintances have said in the last couple of months ‘you’ve changed and brightened back up’ now I have the decision in place and know it can go forward.

I lodged my SDA application in October 2020, we got notification that it had been approved and I was so happy…until my support coordinator picked up that I had been approved only to share accommodation with someone else, and in an area where there is no suitable accommodation. I got very stupidly excited when I received the initial SDA approval but that was short lived when I realised it wasn’t correct.

We lodged an appeal and waited 3 months with no word from the NDIS. When we followed up, we learned that the NDIS had no record of my appeal, it had been lost somewhere in the system. Three months waiting for nothing. After many months of waiting and chasing up the NDIS, at the end of November 2021 I finally received notification that the NDIS had approved funding for SDA and the associated supports - 13 months after first lodging my application.

I’m still waiting to move out as the apartment is still being built due to delays with Covid. I had mentally moved out of this place 6 to 12 months after the original request, just getting the ball rolling. I started preparing myself for the move, which included doing the adult thing of looking for work 9 to 5… Because at the time, my family dynamic was becoming strained. By the time I move, I will have waited nearly 3 years.