This Privacy Policy explains how Ability Housing (“AH”) deals with your personal information and has been developed in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) (Privacy Act) and the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act (Commonwealth) 2013 (NDIS Act).  By providing your personal information to us directly or indirectly you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy.  We will only collect sensitive information with your consent.  

Purpose

The purpose of collecting the information is for:

Effective service delivery and Ability Housing’s duty of care responsibilities.

Planning and executing the development of accommodation, particularly Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA).

Working with participants and/or potential participants to determine eligibility, suitability and support required to be a resident and to help with transitioning and maintaining the accommodation with us. 

The staff of Ability Housing will ask for your written consent to work with third parties to make this process as smooth as possible.   We will only use your personal information for the purposes for which it was given to us, or for purposes which are directly related to the provision of our services.

Collection of sensitive information

To provide our services or to respond to inquiries about our services, we may be required to collect and hold your sensitive information including disability and health and support information requirements. We will limit the collection of sensitive information to the minimum amount required in the circumstances.

Where possible, we will collect your personal information directly from you or your nominated representatives. However, there may be circumstances in which we need to collect your information from other people or organisations. For example, if you have asked us to liaise with your Support Co-ordinator or Occupational Therapist about equipment requirements, we may collect information about you or your needs from these service providers. Ability Housing will seek your approval to liaise with nominated services and people that support you to assist with the services that we provide you.

How information is collected and stored

We may collect personal information from you in a range of ways including:

When you enquire, apply or receive services or supports.

When you contact us in person, by phone, via mail or online (or when we contact you through any means).

 When you engage through our social media, including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. 

 When you register to attend one of our events, are in attendance one of our events, including to meet contact tracing requirements.

When you are a supplier who discloses personal information in the course of delivering products or services, such as if your home address is also your business address.

When you apply for a job vacancy.

We may also collect information from publicly available sources.

Where possible, we will allow you to interact with us anonymously or using a pseudonym for legitimate business purposes. 

We will not sell your personal information and will take all reasonable steps to ensure any necessary handling of your information will comply with this Privacy Policy. Storage of your information and personal details and information are only accessible by authorised personnel who are fully aware of your rights and the Privacy Policy of Ability Housing. All information is stored securely in either paper or electronic form in accordance with the Privacy Act and we regularly review data security measures for suitability.

If we no longer need your personal information, unless we are required under Australian law or a court or tribunal order to retain it, we will take reasonable steps to destroy, securely delete, or de-identify your personal information as appropriate. Information that we retain may be kept for as long as 7 years.

The type of information that might be collected

Ability Housing may collect information from you if you are interested in obtaining or finding out more about our services, or if you are a person representing someone who may require our services. The amount and type of personal information we collect and hold depends on your dealings with us. We consider representatives to be people who are professionally engaged to represent a person, or a family member or friend/advocate who may be acting on behalf of another.

• The personal information we collect may include:
• Name, address, telephone, and email contact details.
• Date of birth, gender, emergency contact details.
• Your preferences for accommodation.
• NDIS/SDA or other funding plan details including the services you are funded to receive or funding renewal details.
• Contact person’s contact information such as a Support Co-ordinator, Allied Health professional or Family Member. 
• Medical information or other assessment information provided by you or your representative.
• Information about your disability/health and support needs.
• Organisation or NDIS Government agencies identifiers/numbers.
• Images from events voluntarily attended.
• Information about the services we provide to you, your goals and other plans relating to the services and your rental billing/SDA funding details.
• Website use data through Google Analytics and cookies, including your IP address, geographic location (city), referring domain, pages accessed, and time when you accessed the website.

Disclosure of personal information

In certain circumstances, it may be necessary for us to disclose your personal information to third parties in order to assist us in providing our services, or where disclosure is required by us to meet our legal and regulatory obligations. We only disclose relevant information. Third parties may include:

• Government agencies and departments including the NDIS, peak bodies, and service planners and disability SDA auditors who ensure that we meet compliance as an SDA provider;
• Supported Independent Living providers (and your Family Members and/or Health Professionals, with consent);
• If you engage with The Housing Hub or Nest
• Government and law enforcement agencies and regulators

We will only disclose your personal information to anyone authorised by you, or to whom you have provided your consent (either expressly or impliedly) or where another permitted general situation applies (as defined in Section 16A of the Privacy Act). We will not disclose information that personally identifies you to any third party other than as set out in this Privacy Policy.

Your rights and access to your personal information

You may access the information we hold about you and submit updates. Please write to us if you wish to access your information at: Managing Director, PO Box 538, Cottesloe WA 6911 or email to hello@abilityhousing.com.au. In order to protect information, we will require proof of identity.

Accuracy of your information

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information held by us is accurate, complete, and up to date. If you believe that any of your personal information is inaccurate, please contact us using the below contact details and we will update your information. 

Updates to this policy

From time to time this policy may change in accordance with best practice and also legislative changes for SDA providers. We recommend that people keep up to date with any changes to our privacy policy by checking our website as required.

Adherence to notifiable data breach legislation

Ability Housing is committed to best practice in ensuring all data and information contained within its web page, forms and general communications between participants, stakeholders, government departments and contractors adheres to the Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth). We will promptly investigate, remedy and document any grievance regarding privacy, dignity or confidentiality in accordance with Ability Housing’s policy on complaints and disputes.

If there was a breach of privacy Ability Housing adheres to the requirements of Notifiable Data Breach legislation as part of the Privacy Act.  This means that if a breach of data privacy does occur we are committed to completing an assessment with 3 working days, well within the 30 days requirements of the legislation.  If a breach is deemed to have occurred and is likely to result in serious harm to an individual affected, the individual and the Australian Information Commissioner will be notified. We would include in the notification our organisation and contact details and a description of the data breach and the kinds of information concerned. Ability Housing would also outline recommendations it would make about steps individuals should take in response to the data breach. Ability Housing would notify the Commissioner should be made using the Notifiable Data Breach form.  More information about this relatively new privacy requirement can be found through the Office of the Australian Information Commission.

Feedback

If you have any privacy questions, queries or concerns please feel free to contact us to discuss it further by calling our office on (08) 9384 5221 or emailing us hello@abilityhousing.com.au, for the attention of the Managing Director.

Further information about privacy legislation/requirements

There are Government organisations that can also provide you with additional information about the management of your information or if you have concerns about how your privacy is managed by Ability Housing you can contact the following services. 

NDIS directly via email to privacy@ndis.gov.au or call 1800 800 110.

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) 1300 363 992 or  enquiries@oaic.gov.au

The specific legislation that informs this privacy policy includes the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 and the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Commonwealth) (NDIS Act).

Responsibilities

AH Board is committed to developing, adopting, and reviewing this policy.

AH, MD is responsible for the implementation of this policy, for       monitoring changes in Privacy legislation, and for advising on the need to review or revise this     policy as and when the need arises.

AH will:

Collection

• Only collect information that is necessary for the performance and primary function(s) of the SDA Alliance.
• Notify stakeholders about why we collect the information and how it is administered.
• Notify stakeholders that this information is accessible to them.
• Collect personal, sensitive or health information from the person themselves wherever practicable.
• If collecting personal information from a third party, advise the person whom the information concerns, from whom their personal information has been collected.
• Collect sensitive or health information only with the person’s consent.
• Determine, where unsolicited information is received, whether the personal information could have been collected in the usual way, and then if it could have, it will be treated normally. (If it could not have been, it must be destroyed, and the person whose personal information has been destroyed will be notified about the receipt and destruction of their personal information).

Use and Disclosure

• Communicate with participants and relevant stakeholder to complete a ‘consent to share’ information document or related processes prior to any sharing of participant information.
• Only use or disclose information for the primary purpose for which it was collected or a directly related secondary purpose.
• For other uses, the SDA Alliance will obtain consent from the affected person.
• In relation to a secondary purpose, use or disclose the personal information only where:
•  a secondary purpose is related to the primary purpose and the individual would reasonably have expected us to use it for the purposes; or
• the person has consented; or
• certain other legal reasons exist, or disclosure is required to prevent serious and imminent threat to life, health or safety.
• In relation to personal information which has been collected from a person, use the personal information for direct marketing, where that person would reasonably expect it to be used for this purpose, and the SDA Alliance has provided an opt out and the opt out has not been taken up.

•  In relation to personal information which has been collected other than from the person themselves, only use the personal information for direct marketing if the person whose personal information has been collected has consented (and they have not taken up the opt- out).
• Ensure any person opting out of direct marketing is noted as doing so, or otherwise removed from direct marketing mailing lists.
• State in the  Privacy policy whether the information is sent overseas and further will ensure that any overseas providers of services are as compliant with privacy as Ability Housing  is required to be.
• Provide all individuals access to their personal information except where it is a threat to life or health or it is authorised by law to refuse and, if a person is able to establish that the personal information is not accurate, then Ability Housing must take steps to correct it. Ability Housing will allow a person to attach a statement to their information if AH disagrees it is inaccurate.
• Where for a legal or other reason we are not required to provide a person with access to the information, consider whether a mutually agreed intermediary would allow sufficient access to meet the needs of both parties.
• Charge no fee for making a request for personal information, correcting the information or associating a statement regarding accuracy with the personal information.

Storage

• Implement and maintain steps to ensure that personal information is protected from misuse and loss, unauthorised access, interference, unauthorised modification or disclosure.
• Before the AH discloses any personal information to an overseas supplier including a provider of IT services such as servers or cloud services, establish that they are privacy compliant and have systems which provide sufficient security.
• Ensure that AH data is up to date, accurate and complete.

Destruction and de-identification

• Destroy personal information once is not required to be kept for the purpose for which it was collected, including from decommissioned laptops and mobile phones.
• De-identify or anonymise information if required by the person whose information AH  holds.
• Do not use any government related identifiers unless they are reasonably necessary for the intended use.

Data Quality

• Take reasonable steps to ensure the information collected is accurate, complete, up to date, and relevant to the functions required.

Openness

• Ensure stakeholders are aware of the AH Privacy Policy and its purposes.
• Make this information freely available in relevant publications, handouts and upon completion our secure website portal.

Access and Correction

• Ensure individuals have a right to seek access to information held about them and to correct it if it is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or not up to date.

Anonymity

• Allow people from whom the personal information is being collected to not identify themselves or use a pseudonym unless it is impracticable to deal with them on this basis.

Making information available to other organisations

• Release information to third parties where it is requested by the person concerned.

Evaluation and Forms

• Specialist Disability Accommodation Operational Guideline NDIS Nov 2021
• Terms of Business for Registered Providers 2016

Related documents/Resources

• The Pathway to SDA Summer Foundation December 2017
• Confidentiality Policy
• Tenant help Tenanthelp.com.au (State specific information for tenants)
• Disability Housing Information line 1800 843 929 or email housinginfo@pwd.org.au Information for people living in SDA properties and their supporters