NDIS Housing Supports and the I-CAN v6

How SDA and SIL Fit Into the New Assessment Framework

Disclaimer: This article reflects publicly available information about NDIS housing supports and the I-CAN v6 assessment framework as at November 2026. SDA eligibility rules and operational guidance may be updated over time. This guide does not constitute legal, financial, or disability support advice. For help with your specific situation, contact the NDIA, a disability advocate, or an NDIS-specialist housing planner.

Housing is one of the most complex and high-stakes areas of NDIS planning. For participants who rely on Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) or Supported Independent Living (SIL), the way support needs are documented in the I-CAN v6 assessment has direct consequences for the housing and living arrangements that underpin everything else in daily life.

With the I-CAN v6 staged rollout beginning April 1, 2027, now is the time to understand how housing-related support needs are captured across the assessment's 12 functional domains — and how to ensure your documentation tells the complete, accurate story of where and how you live.

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What Are SDA and SIL?

Before getting into the I-CAN v6 specifics, it is worth being precise about what these two funding streams actually are — because they are often confused, and the distinction matters significantly for how you prepare.

Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA)

Specialist Disability Accommodation is funding for the physical housing itself — specifically, housing that has been purpose-built or significantly modified to meet the needs of people with very high support needs or extreme functional impairment.

SDA is not funded for everyone with disability. It targets participants whose functional needs require design features that go beyond standard housing modifications — things like ceiling hoist systems, height-adjustable kitchens, reinforced structural elements, emergency call infrastructure, or proximity to on-site support staff.

SDA has its own NDIS funding line and is assessed and approved separately from other NDIS supports. The four SDA design categories are Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust, and High Physical Support. Each has specific design standards that the housing must meet.

SDA is one of the NDIS's highest-cost line items per participant.

Supported Independent Living (SIL)

Supported Independent Living is funding for support workers who assist with daily living tasks — not the housing itself, but the people who provide support within a home. SIL can be provided in SDA, in shared housing, or in a participant's own or rented home.

SIL funding is typically for participants who need support with daily living tasks but want to live as independently as possible in the community. It commonly involves shared living arrangements where costs are pooled across several participants.

Unlike SDA, SIL funding is not a separate approval category in the same formal way — it is allocated as part of the participant's overall supports based on assessed need.

Why Both Matter for I-CAN v6 Preparation

The I-CAN v6 assessment does not have a dedicated "housing" domain. But the domains it does assess — Mobility, Domestic Life, Self Care, and others — are precisely the areas where housing-related support needs are most visible.

How well your functional needs are captured in those domains determines the evidence base for both SDA justification and SIL hour calculation. Getting this right is not optional for participants whose independence and safety depend on these supports.

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How the I-CAN v6 Assesses Housing-Related Support Needs

The I-CAN v6 assesses functioning across 12 domains, drawing on the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Three domains are particularly relevant for housing-related support needs.

Mobility

Mobility covers how you move within and between environments — walking, transferring, using a wheelchair, navigating stairs, and accessing different areas of a building.

For SDA and SIL participants, the mobility domain is directly shaped by your housing environment. Several specific issues deserve careful attention:

Home accessibility features: If you use ceiling hoists, a wheelchair, or require wide doorways and turning circles, your current SDA has been designed to enable a level of function that would not be possible in standard housing. In your assessment, describe: what transfers you can perform with the hoist in place versus without it; what areas of your home you can access versus what would be inaccessible in standard housing; how your mobility equipment operates within the designed space.

What happens without the accessible environment: This is critical. The assessment needs to understand not just what you can do in your current, optimised SDA environment, but what your underlying functional level is. Describe what would happen to your mobility if you were in standard housing. This is not hypothetical — it is evidence of the functional need that the SDA exists to address.

Outdoor and community mobility: SDA often provides specific access features at the interface with the community — ground-floor access, accessible entrances, proximity to public transport. Document how your mobility in the community connects to your housing environment.

Domestic Life

Domestic Life covers household management — cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, and maintaining your home. For SIL participants, support workers typically provide significant assistance with these tasks.

The key is documentation specificity. Avoid describing this as "SIL workers do my domestic tasks." Instead, describe:

• What specific tasks you cannot perform independently — cooking from scratch, operating appliances, maintaining a safe and clean environment
• What level of assistance is required — physical prompting, full assistance, supervision, setup only
• Why the assistance is needed — fatigue, fine motor limitations, cognitive sequencing difficulties, pain on sustained standing
• What happens if the assistance is not provided — what risks emerge, what does not get done, what deteriorates

SIL support in the Domestic Life domain is some of the most underspecified support documentation in NDIS assessments. Generic descriptions like "requires assistance with household tasks" carry far less weight than functional specifics.

Self Care

Self Care covers bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, toileting, and managing personal hygiene. SDA and SIL environments are often specifically designed to address high personal care needs.

For this domain, describe two things simultaneously:

1. What the environment enables: the roll-in shower that makes bathing possible; the hoist that enables safe transfers on and off the toilet; the grip rails that allow you to complete dressing with assistance; the adjustable-height sink that enables face washing.

2. What you still require support for even within the optimised environment: even with the SDA design features in place, what does a support worker need to do? How long does it take? What happens if the support worker is not available?

Both pieces of information are essential. Describing only what your SDA environment enables suggests your needs may be lower than they are. Describing only what you still cannot do without noting the role of the SDA environment may miss crucial functional context.

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SDA and the I-CAN v6: The Indirect but Critical Connection

SDA is not an I-CAN v6 domain. It does not appear on a checklist. The assessor will not specifically ask "do you need SDA?" as a domain question.

What happens instead is this: your I-CAN v6 assessment documents your functional needs across Mobility, Self Care, Domestic Life, and other relevant domains. That functional evidence then becomes the foundation on which SDA justification and design category recommendations are built — typically with the support of a housing planner and an OT who writes a specific SDA report.

This means that weak functional documentation in the relevant I-CAN domains weakens the entire SDA evidence chain.

A thorough I-CAN v6 assessment does not automatically deliver SDA approval. But a thorough I-CAN assessment ensures the NDIA's view of your functional needs accurately reflects why specialist housing is required — rather than treating your housing need as separable from your functional reality.

If you have an SDA housing planner or support coordinator involved in your plan, brief them before your I-CAN v6 assessment. They should be aware of what domains are being assessed and what specific functional evidence is most important to emphasise.

For more on the I-CAN v6 evidence approach more broadly, see our NDIS I-CAN v6 Evidence Guide.

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SIL and the I-CAN v6: Support Is Based on Assessed Needs

SIL is funded based on the assessed daily living support needs of the participant. How I-CAN v6 information will feed into SIL decisions under new framework planning has not been published, because the NDIA's version of the tool is not public. It is reasonable to expect that your assessor will ask what you can and cannot do independently across daily living activities.

Thorough preparation across Mobility, Domestic Life, Self Care and General Tasks and Demands (which covers daily routines, medication management and safety) creates the most accurate picture of your daily living needs.

The more specific your functional documentation, the more accurately your genuine needs can be understood.

This also means that underdocumented assessments can result in underestimated support — not because the NDIA made a mistake, but because the documentation did not capture the full picture. The assessment can only reflect what the assessor is given information about.

For a practical guide to describing physical support needs specifically, see our article on how to describe physical disability support needs for the I-CAN v6.

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If You Currently Live in SDA or SIL

If you are already in SDA and/or SIL, your I-CAN v6 assessment preparation needs to address a specific challenge: how do you accurately represent your functional needs when you live in an environment specifically designed to support those needs?

The answer is to document on two levels simultaneously:

Level 1 — What the environment enables: Describe what your SDA or SIL arrangement currently makes possible. Be specific. "I can transfer from my wheelchair to the shower chair because the SDA has a ceiling track hoist and a roll-in shower" is far more useful than "I live in SDA."

Level 2 — What you still cannot do independently even in this environment: Even with optimal support arrangements, what do you still require assistance with? What can you not do safely without a support worker present? What would take you significantly longer or cause harm without support?

The assessment needs to capture your genuine functional needs, not just your current situation in an optimised setting. An assessor who only sees a participant functioning well in SIL may not understand the level of support that underpins that functioning.

Bring your SIL support hours summary to the assessment if possible. This documents what level of daily support you currently receive and provides a reference point for functional need.

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If You Want SDA or SIL but Don't Currently Have It

If you are seeking SDA or SIL for the first time — or seeking a different SDA design category — your I-CAN v6 assessment is a crucial opportunity to establish the functional evidence base.

In this situation, describe:

Your current situation: Where are you currently living? What functional limitations does your current housing create? Be specific — not "it's difficult" but "I cannot access my bathroom independently because there is no hoist and the bathroom is not wheelchair accessible; I require two support workers to assist with showering."

The functional consequences of unsuitable housing: What support is currently required to compensate? What are the safety risks? What daily activities are impossible or significantly restricted? What informal support (family, carers) is being relied on beyond a reasonable level?

Why specialist accommodation is required: What design features does your functional need require? Why are modifications to standard housing insufficient — or why is your current standard housing not modifiable to address the need?

The I-CAN v6 assessment will not automatically recommend SDA — that comes through a separate housing assessment process. But the functional evidence documented in the I-CAN assessment contributes to the evidence base for that recommendation.

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Home Modifications Versus SDA

A common question in the context of I-CAN v6 preparation is how to articulate the difference between needing home modifications and needing SDA.

Home modifications are structural or fixture changes to a participant's existing home — grab rails, ramps, accessible tap fittings, door widening, accessible bathroom installations. They are funded through the NDIS and appear under Capital Supports in participant plans. Home modifications are explicitly protected from the October 2026 funding cuts.

SDA is appropriate where:

• The participant's functional needs require design features that cannot be achieved through modifications to a standard dwelling (ceiling hoist systems, emergency call infrastructure, reinforced rooms, on-site support worker accommodation)
• The participant's current housing cannot structurally accommodate the required modifications
• The participant requires 24-hour support worker access within the building footprint
• The participant's behavioural or health needs require a specifically designed, purpose-built environment

When describing your situation, be specific about which design features your functional needs require, why modifications to standard housing would not address them, and — if your current housing has already had modifications — what those modifications currently provide and what still remains unaddressed.

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What Happens to SDA and SIL When Your Plan Changes Under I-CAN v6

Under new framework planning, NDIS plans will be structured differently, with a budget method set out in new NDIS rules. The details of how assessment results will translate into budgets have not been published. What this means for SDA and SIL specifically is that functional needs documentation needs to be as thorough and specific as possible.

SDA, as noted above, is a separate line item that the NDIA has listed as not affected by the October 2026 community participation and daily living skills reductions. SDA is also not an I-CAN domain.

SIL is linked to assessed daily living support needs, so thorough documentation of your daily living needs matters for SIL participants. How I-CAN v6 information will be used for SIL under new framework planning has not been published.

For participants currently in SDA or SIL, the practical advice is straightforward: document as thoroughly as possible before your I-CAN v6 assessment. Do not assume your current housing arrangement will protect your supports without documentation of the functional needs that underpin it.

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The October 2026 Cuts and SDA/SIL: What Is Protected

This is important to state clearly.

The NDIA confirmed that the October 2026 funding reductions — which cut Social, Economic and Community Participation budgets by 50% and Improved Daily Living Skills budgets by 10%, applied gradually as plans are created, reassessed or renewed — do not apply to SDA or home modifications.

The NDIA's list of supports not affected includes:

• Specialist Disability Accommodation
• Home and vehicle modifications
• Personal mobility equipment

If you currently have SDA in your plan, the NDIA has listed it as not affected by the October 2026 reductions, which are being applied to plans between 1 October 2026 and 30 September 2027. Your SDA funding is not part of those reductions when your plan is reassessed or renewed.

This is a meaningful protection for the most vulnerable participants in the scheme. However, it does not mean SDA is entirely insulated from change. The I-CAN v6 rollout from April 2027 will still require thorough functional documentation to ensure SDA eligibility continues to be supported by a strong evidence base.

What about SIL? The NDIA's announcement does not name SIL in its summary list of supports not affected, and the full spreadsheet linked from the announcement lists exclusions in more detail. The two reduced categories are social, economic and community participation, and improved daily living skills. If you receive SIL, check how the lines in your own plan are classified, and ask the NDIA if you are unsure.

If you receive 24-hour funded NDIS supports, which is often the case in SIL, you may be able to use the new high support needs plan variation pathway, provided your combined budget for Assistance with Daily Life, Home and Living, and Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation is $215,030 or more. See our guide to the 24-hour support safeguard. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has also listed a 2026 consultation on a commissioning approach for home and living supports for SIL participants who need 24/7 support.

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SDA Funding Now Shows in Full in Your Plan — A Practical Change (October 2026)

One practical improvement to SDA administration took effect from 19 October 2026. From this date, the full amount of SDA funding a participant is eligible for will be included in their NDIS plan when it is approved — whether the participant is currently living in SDA or still looking for an SDA home.

Previously, participants who had been approved for SDA but were not yet in a suitable property would often see a $1 placeholder in their plan, rather than the full funding amount. The NDIA says showing the full amount is intended to make SDA funding easier to access, reduce delays and support efficient claiming.

What this means in practice:

• If your plan currently shows $1 or less than your full eligible SDA amount, this will be updated at your next plan reassessment
• If you are actively moving into an SDA home, you may be able to have your funding updated earlier by submitting a change of circumstances request to the NDIA
• You must tell the NDIA when you move into a new SDA home
• There is no change to how SDA eligibility decisions are made or how much SDA funding you are eligible for — only how the amount is displayed in your plan

This change does not affect participants who are already in SDA and whose plan already shows the correct amount. It is primarily relevant for participants in the SDA pipeline — those who have been approved for SDA but are waiting to move into an appropriate property.

If you have questions about your SDA funding display, see the NDIA's announcement or contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110.

For a full overview of the October 2026 changes and what is protected, see our article on the October 2026 NDIS cuts: what changes and what's protected.

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Practical Checklist for SDA and SIL Participants Preparing for I-CAN v6

Use this checklist to ensure your I-CAN v6 preparation captures the full picture for housing-related supports.

Documentation to gather:

• Current SDA approval letter and design category confirmation
• SIL roster of care (hours per day/week and task breakdown)
• OT functional assessment — specifically addressing what the SDA environment enables and what you still require support for
• Housing planner report (if you have one)
• Support coordinator notes on housing-related support hours

What to document in your preparation:

• For each relevant domain (Mobility, Self Care, Domestic Life): describe what the SDA/SIL environment enables AND what you still cannot do independently
• If seeking SDA: describe current housing limitations, functional consequences, and why standard modifications are insufficient
• Describe your support worker tasks specifically — not "daily assistance" but what tasks, how long, how many workers, what happens without that support
• Note any safety incidents or near-misses that relate to your housing needs
• Note what happens when SIL support is reduced, cancelled, or unavailable

Before the assessment:

• Brief your assessor at the start: "I live in SDA with SIL and my housing arrangement directly affects how my functional needs present in the assessment."
• Bring your preparation document and any housing-related reports
• Ask your support coordinator or housing planner to provide a brief supporting letter if possible

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A well-prepared I-CAN v6 assessment for SDA and SIL participants does not just describe your disability in isolation. It describes your disability in the context of the housing and support environment that enables your participation — and ensures the assessment captures both the needs that environment addresses and the needs that remain.

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Sources

• NDIA, Changes to how SDA funding appears in NDIS plans (ndis.gov.au, 22 October 2026)
• NDIA, Changes to support budgets from 1 October (ndis.gov.au, 1 October 2026)
• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Safeguards for high support needs participants
• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, NDIS Reforms Consultation Hub
• National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 (Cth)