Canberra charity takes 30-home disability model to three states

Canberra charity Project Independence confirmed this week that it is taking its disability homeownership model interstate, with a Melbourne site already carrying development approval and land searches under way in four more locations.

The ACT non-profit, founded 14 years ago by Glenn Keys AO, runs a “progressive home ownership” scheme for adults with intellectual disabilities. Across its 30 homes in the ACT, residents build equity in their property and can eventually move on to the open housing market: 17 have done so to date, a result Keys pointed to as evidence the model works.

The first interstate expansion is at Glen Huntly in Melbourne, where the plan is to refurbish an existing property into 10 units plus a residence for a live-in coordinator. Project Independence said the site already has a 200-person waitlist and it is now chasing state funding, philanthropic support and other revenue to finance construction, with a target of next year. Land searches and talks with stakeholders are also under way in Geelong, Sydney, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast, with Project Independence aiming to secure a Geelong site within 18 months and sites in Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast within two years.

Why it matters

The expansion matters because it is a Canberra-grown model being exported, not a national program landing in the ACT. Project Independence built its approach in Canberra over 14 years, and the Melbourne waitlist of 200 people suggests demand well beyond what any single site can meet.

The charity is also using the expansion to push a policy argument: it wants state and federal governments to formally recognise progressive home ownership as a distinct housing category, alongside build-to-rent and other established models, arguing current funding settings favour those established structures over newer ones like its own.

Keys said demand for the model has been strong wherever the charity has raised it. “The demand is very high. It seems everyone wants to make this happen,” he said.

The numbers

Project Independence cited an Anglicare Rental Affordability Study finding that, this year, 0.03% of between 46,000 and 49,000 houses surveyed were rentable on the Disability Support Pension, down from 0.1% of 43,000 dwellings surveyed the previous year. Keys said that share was the equivalent of 17 houses, and said that in the whole of Victoria there is no property that someone on the DSP with an intellectual disability can afford to buy.

What’s next

The Glen Huntly refurbishment in Melbourne is the immediate priority, with Project Independence working to lock in state funding and philanthropic backing so the 10 units can proceed next year. Beyond that, the charity is targeting a site in Geelong within 18 months, followed by sites in Toowoomba and on the Sunshine Coast within two years.

The Glen Huntly project is still seeking financing, and Keys points to the ACT record, 17 residents using the program to enter the broader homeownership market, as proof the model works. Project Independence is also lobbying state and federal governments to formally recognise progressive home ownership alongside established models. It comes in the same week the ACT government launched a national competition to design pre-approved pattern-book homes for small Canberra blocks, another attempt to get a proven housing model working at scale beyond a single project.

The Australian Developer