SNN_Dec 2021 Issue_web low res

NEW ZEALAND SPINAL TRUST 34
Finding your Happy Place
The challenge of finding accessible and liveable accommodation
to meet full universal design standards. “Unfortunately
the majority of social housing is inaccessible, turning the
pool of social housing options into a shallow puddle,
giving us next to no fully free and informed decision
when it comes to our housing,” says Josh.
If someone is fortunate enough to be offered a social
housing home, Josh says you have no real option but to
accept it, otherwise you run the risk of being bumped
down the list and once declined that house is offered to
someone else on the list.
“Even if you decline for a valid reason like being too far
from public transport, work or whānau it’s just the nature
of the beast,” he says.
For Josh, home is somewhere were he can go to be safe,
relaxed and healthy. “To have a home in my opinion is
one’s safety, being able to go home where you can relax
and recharge and connect with the people you hold most
dear, and belong.”
Josh says to have a home is crucial to a person’s safety and wellbeing.
Josh Caldwell knows firsthand the challenge
of finding appropriate and accessible housing
in New Zealand.
The Peer and Whānau Support Worker for New Zealand
Spinal Trust is a person with lived experience of disability
(PLEx). “As someone who works in the rehabilitation and
disability sector, I get to see and hear directly how
housing decisions impact on our SCI community every
day,” says Josh.
One of the goals in the Government’s Disability Action
Plan 2019-2023 is to improve accessibility across the
country’s housing system.
Kāinga Ora’s Accessibility Policy (released in 2019) set a
target for 15 percent of public housing new builds having
Josh’s dream home isn’t extravagant but captures both
the feeling and functionality that the word ‘home’
incapsulates. “North facing to get the sun, an open
floorplan with wider doorways (or internal sliding doors
like Japan) and an accessible kitchen with benches and
stoves at my height, and a cupboard I can drive into.”
Having space to entertain friends and family or have
them stay is also important for Josh. “A bathroom with a
wet area shower, a vanity that my chair can get under and
a room wide enough to get around in my chair without
having to worry about walls. But the game changer would
be significant storage space for consumables and
equipment,” adds Josh.
The Flourishing Together project* excites Josh as it
demonstrates that research makes a difference, having
been developed from “those who shared their concerns
and desires for acceptable and liveable housing,” in the
New Zealand Spinal Cord Injury Action Plan (NZSCIAP)
research last year.
“It emphasises that sharing our stories makes a difference,
and that people are actually listening,” Josh says.
“As someone who had very slim options for
accommodation after my SCI, this piece of research has
been a long time coming and I cannot wait to see the
impact it will make.”
—Josh Caldwell
Unfortunately the majority of
social housing is inaccessible.
*The ‘Flourishing Together’ project is a three-year
Burwood Academy study which aims to develop strategies
and tools to allow tāngata whaikaha to equitably
contribute to policy discussions and planning. This
includes issues related to housing and home (kāinga).