Our Organisation
Our Mission
Providing the highest standard of support, services and residential accommodation to people with mental disabilities for their wellbeing, rehabilitation and recovery.
Our Vision
Improving mental health, wellbeing, confidence and independence for our residential clients together with increasing acceptance, support and tolerance from the community for people with mental health disabilities.
Our Function
ICLA supports people with psychiatric disabilities by providing living accommodation, support services and rehabilitation to live a valued life in the community.
Our History
ICLA was first established in 1984 to aid a group of boarding house residents in Bondi who were facing eviction.
"Rotorua" was a privately operated boarding house for more than ten years, providing secure, supported accommodation for up to 29 people with psychiatric disabilities. When the property was put up for sale, the residents again faced the insecure tenancy and lack of support experienced by many others with psychiatric disabilities.
A group of community health workers, students, family members and others from the community worked to form ICLA, and were able to negotiate with the NSW Department of Housing to secure appropriate alternative accommodation.
In 1985, the residents were moved into a Department of Housing boarding house on Bondi Road as a temporary measure while suitable permanent accommodation was found and prepared. In the following four years, ICLA secured additional accommodation for clients but until this time, the cost of managing the facilities and staff costs were covered by client fees and donations.
In 1989 funding was obtained from the Department of Health to pay for adequate staffing of ICLA’s facilities. In 1993, the local Department of Housing offered an additional property for low-support accommodation. The additional property allowed ICLA to reduce client numbers in medium-support facilities which were over-occupied.
In our first partnership with a Community Housing organisation, ICLA acquired a number of units from Darlinghurst Area Rental Tenancy Co-op Ltd (DART) in October 1997. In 2002, property management of Burton Street was handed over to South West Inner Sydney Housing (SWISH).
ICLA remained a small organisation for a number of years, employing around thirteen staff and struggling to remain within budget while providing the support required by our clients. The organisation attempted to acquire funding through various sources in order to expand, and thereby achieve greater stability and better resources. Due to ICLA's modest size and lack of profile, this was difficult to achieve, until 2000, when two funding submissions were approved in quick succession.
The City of Sydney contracted ICLA to manage the Street Outreach Service from July 2000. The scope of the contract was expanded during the period of the Sydney Olympics, to provide immediate assistance to people who were homeless in Olympic sites in the City. The outreach team were originally based in Town Hall House, but later moved to an office in George Street. In late 2000, the Department of Ageing and Disability (now Ageing, Disability and Home Care) approved ICLA's submission for four facilities through the Boarding House Relocation Programme. Under this program, people with psychiatric and other disabilities were to be moved from boarding houses with inadequate support into community-operated supported accommodation. The program operates in partnership with the Department of Housing, who purchased and renovated the properties for disability access, and with community housing associations (in this case, St George Community Housing), who handle the property management.
The relocations were completed by early 2002. In the intervening period, a number of other houses (mainly four bedroom houses) were secured and ICLA now provides accommodation support for almost eighty people.
ICLA’s contract with the City of Sydney’s Outreach Service expired in December 2005 and ICLA no longer provides this service.
Our Stakeholders
-
People with a mental or intellectual disability, their families and carers
-
Our funders
-
Community and other service providers