Abstract

Background: Disability is a part of the human condition which many people will experience at some point in their life. People with disabilities experience various difficulties and disadvantages including higher rates of poverty, lower educational achievement, higher rates of deprivation in terms of food, poor housing and difficulties accessing healthcare. One aspect which needs particular attention is the appropriate housing for people with disability to help optimise their functioning, and that may improve their quality of life. Whilst there is some literature on ‘disability housing’ and ‘housing management’, there seem to be no focused work which looked at ‘management of disability housing and related support’.

 Aim: The aim of this exploratory study was to better understand the issues in managing housing and housing-related support for people with disabilities in South-Wales from perspectives of housing managers.

 Method: Data were collected from 12 participants (at different management levels) from 7 organisations based in South-Wales through semi-structured interviews. These data were analysed using thematic analysis and presented as a preliminary model.

 Results: The study highlighted two main themes – ‘processes’ and ‘challenges’ – and various sub-themes which run through both of these. In addition, several important observations which did not fit the model but related to disability housing management are discussed in a separate section.

 Conclusions: The study results suggest that managing disability housing is seen as a ‘challenging process’ from the perspective of housing managers.  The findings may have various implications especially in better understanding and possibly improving service provision in relation to disability housing management. In addition, even though the current exploratory study provides a good overview of this topic and highlights some of the main issues, considering the limited literature, further research is required in this area.