NDIS Medium Term Accommodation in Sydney, the honest version

Generally up to 90 days, or three months. Extensions can be requested where housing delays continue, but they aren't guaranteed and need evidence that the long-term home is still confirmed and that active steps are being taken. MTA is treated as a one-off support rather than something renewed indefinitely, because the whole design assumes you move into your permanent home at the end.

No — and this catches more families than anything else about MTA. The funding covers accommodation costs only. Personal care, daily living support, meals, groceries, transport and community access all come from other parts of your plan. When you request MTA, request the support alongside it in the same conversation, and confirm it's actually in place before moving day.

Core Supports. In older plans it sits under Assistance with Daily Life; in newer PACE plans it typically appears under the Home and Living core category. It's often a stated support, meaning the funding is ring-fenced for MTA specifically and can't be spent on anything else.

In practice, yes. MTA bridges a known gap rather than funding an open-ended search. The test we'd apply before submitting: can you name where this person will be living on day 91, and can you evidence it? An SDA offer, a SIL agreement with a start date, a builder's completion letter. If the answer is no, MTA is likely the wrong request and your energy is better spent escalating the housing search itself.

It's one of its main purposes, and NDIS guidance says so directly. The determining factor is almost always timing rather than eligibility. Raise MTA the week a discharge date is first mentioned — not after discharge planning has stalled for a month. Ask for a discharge planning meeting, bring your support coordinator, and make sure the request covers both accommodation and support.

Purpose, duration and what's funded. STA — now called Short Term Respite — is a short break, generally up to 28 days a year and 14 at a time, with accommodation and support bundled in an all-inclusive daily rate. MTA is transitional housing for up to 90 days that funds accommodation only. If you need a break, it's respite. If you need somewhere to live while your permanent home is prepared, it's MTA.

Speak to your support coordinator immediately rather than waiting for the MTA period to expire. The situation has changed materially, and the response may involve a new housing search with different urgency, a plan variation, a different support pathway, or an extension request while alternatives are found. What doesn't work is silence until the last week — options narrow sharply as the clock runs down.

Yes. Choice and control apply here as elsewhere. Where MTA has been arranged urgently, families sometimes feel a placement was decided for them — you're entitled to ask what other options exist, to see the property first, and to raise concerns. Practically, choice narrows with urgency and with complex accessibility needs, which is another argument for starting early.

Yes. Post-hospital participants often arrive with newer, more medical needs than a standard placement anticipates. Across our Sydney services we support PEG feeding, seizure management, wound and continence care, complex manual handling, and behaviours under registered behaviour support plans. Tell us the clinical detail at enquiry stage so we can confirm capability honestly rather than discovering a gap on arrival.

Often, yes. We deliver Supported Independent Living and Specialist Disability Accommodation across Sydney, so for many families the MTA period is spent preparing to move into one of our homes — which removes a great deal of coordination friction. That said, we'll happily provide MTA while you move into someone else's permanent placement, and we won't pressure you toward ours.