22 November 2012 marked the formal launch the formal launch of the Housing and Support Alliance, which merged advisory body Housing Options and the Association for Supported Living, and has a remit to increase the choices learning disabled people have over their housing and support.
An introductory statement under the heading ‘Professionals still have too much control over people with learning disabilities’, by Alice Wood chief executive of Housing Support Alliance, can be found on the Community Care website . In it, she describes her organisation’s understanding of the terms ‘person-centred approach’, ‘supported living’, ‘supported housing’, ‘real choice’ etc. (Her views may strike some readers, especially parents and carers, as being based more on aspiration and idealism, than on the reality of their own experiences).
Housing Options and the Association for Supported Living currently seem to still be maintaining their own websites. The Housing Options website, in particular, has hitherto proved an excellent source of practical/factual information on housing provision for people with a learning disability.