A severe shortage in housing suitable for Victorians with “complex needs” - people who need considerable social and health support - means hundreds of the state’s most vulnerable people, including those with an intellectual disability, have no option but to live in psychiatric wards, short-stay hotel units and boarding houses. Their families and advocates say it's a full-blown crisis. “We are drowning, we are completely overwhelmed,” says Sarah Forbes, the advocacy manager at the Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability (VALID), which supports people with intellectual disabilities. “We had three people in the past week admitted to hospital after a breakdown or outburst of some sort, and wherever they were living will not take them back. They have nowhere to go.” Just a few suburbs away from where Mr Mogford lives, 33-year-old Alexander Curotte lies in bed in a ward at Footscray Hospital. He has been there for almost two weeks. He has an intellectual disability, autism and challenging behaviours, where he sometimes harms himself and others.

When Mr Curotte first arrived in an ambulance, after suffering a mental health breakdown and trying to harm himself, he was shackled to the bed and was watched over by a security guard. Alexander Curotte, taken three years ago. Credit:Justin McManus Three months ago, Mr Curotte's parents, Peter and Paula Curotte, decided to remove him from the supported accommodation where he had lived for 18 years because they noticed large bruises on his body that the accommodation provider could not explain. Mr Curotte had previously been sexually abused by a carer at the accommodation, leaving him deeply traumatised and unable to live with other people. His desperate parents found him a short-term hotel apartment. But it's not suitable. It does not have the “soft fall” padding he needs, or an accessible bathroom. And other guests can hear him shouting. It was this housing insecurity that triggered his breakdown.

When Mr Curotte leaves hospital, he has nowhere to go. Paula and Peter Curotte hold a photo of Alexander's bruises as they stand with Bill Shorten. Credit:Paul Jeffers His parents have been lobbying for their son for decades. His father stood alongside Labor leader Bill Shorten when he announced the party's support for a royal commission into disability abuse. But still they have to fight. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is based on a “market” system, where government funding goes directly to the person with disabilities, who can choose the providers they want.

But critics say this system is failing complex clients because private disability providers are not interested in investing in such a specialised area. Alexander in happier days, on a fishing trip. Kevin Stone, the head of VALID, estimates there are least 300 people with an intellectual disability and complex needs who can't find suitable housing. “What would it take to make Alexander’s life easier? It’s pretty bloody easy. Give him a house, give him some quality support and give his family a break,” Mr Stone says. Sam Mogford’s father and uncle both died from Huntington’s disease (if a parent has this disease there is a 50 per cent chance of inheriting it). His brother Tom Mogford also has it.

Mr Mogford’s mother, Sally Moore, noticed a dramatic change in his personality when he was 17. He changed from a well-behaved student into an unreasonable, antagonistic young man (behavioural change is a symptom of Huntington's). Mr Mogford left the family home in Cobram for university but struggled to cope with his disease and became homeless. He lived in crisis accommodation, and then public mental health inpatient units, where he has lived for the past two years. He was initially a compulsory patient, but has been a voluntary patient since April last year when he was assisted by Victoria Legal Aid. “Sam needs support to live in the community like any other 26-year-old who loves art and poetry and wants to travel,” says Sonia Law, the program manager of Victoria Legal Aid’s mental health and disability law program. “This is a restrictive place to live... and it’s making him miserable.”

Mr Mogford says staff at Sunshine Hospital are “lovely people” who are good to him. But he wants to live somewhere that understands the needs of someone with a neurodegenerative brain disorder. There is only one Huntington’s-specific residential home in Victoria, which has a long waiting list. Mr Mogford has a $90,000 NDIS package for six months, which includes therapists and support people but no housing. “It’s confusing to me how this can be spent on someone without addressing housing,” says his mother. Mr Curotte’s parents have been offered a concrete public housing dwelling that will need substantial renovation to be suitable for their son. They are awaiting an occupational therapist's report.