People-centred housing services for persons with psychosocial disabilities

Founded by Support-Girona from Spain in 2018, the Housing Commission supports people with psychosocial disabilities to access housing. A person-centred methodology ensures that they can decide for themselves where and how they want to live. By 2022 more than 50 people have found housing in this way.

In 2018 Support-Girona, an NGO working for people with disabilities based in Catalunya, Spain, formed a housing commission designed to help people with disabilities to access and maintain housing through a person-centred methodology. The commission bases their support on the individual’s self-assessment of his or her support needs and the desire to find a suitable accommodation, while at the same time working with the housing sector and social welfare authorities. Between 2019 and 2022 the commission has accommodated more than 50 people.

Problems Targeted

People with psychosocial disabilities are either institutionalized or have to rely on social services for housing, which does not always meet their support needs.

Solution, Innovation and Impact

The Top House project was initiated to create a methodology to ensure persons with psychosocial disabilities can choose how and where they want to live. The project aims to avoid institutions and closed settings and instead to provide people with opportunities to access and maintain their own apartments. Using this person-centred methodology, Support Girona assesses the living needs of the individual, specifically using a Top House Support Needs Assessment Tool (THSUNA) that has been developed for this purpose. THSUNA uses a quantitative-based scale to provide an individual assessment of a person’s needs, the results of which are then packaged, petitioned, and filed with the housing commission. At that point, the commission is able to find a suitable place and/or roommate for the housing candidate. Support Girona’s housing commission project started in 2018 with no apartments and has grown to 21 apartments in the Girona region in 2022.

Funding, Outlook and Transferability

The project is self-financed by Support Girona, while funding for the housing itself comes from the public administration. The assessment methodologies such as THSUNA were developed and co-financed by a consortium of partners, as part of the Erasmus + programme of the European Union from 2017 to 2019. The consortium included the Essl Foundation (Austria), Jugend am Werk (Austria), EASPD (Belgium), the Irish Council for Social Housing (Ireland), the ASPA Foundation (Finland), the Support-Girona Foundation (Spain), and Homeless Link (United Kingdom). Support Girona wants to expand the number of users living independently and intends to apply for public funding to buy and renovate another building to create more housing opportunities.

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