Community Options to close as Canberra’s flexible support goes unfunded
Community Options is preparing to close after the ACT Government confirmed that no funding had been identified in the 2026-27 ACT Budget for Community Options’ proposed Community Transition Support Program.
Community Options began supporting Canberrans in 1989 and was formally incorporated in the ACT on 20 May 1991. For more than 35 years the organisation has worked alongside some of Canberra’s most vulnerable people, providing intensive case management, in-home support, advocacy and practical assistance. Community Options was supporting local families through specialised community programs more than two decades ago and, in 2021-22 alone, connected 5,646 clients, families and carers to essential supports. Since 2020, the organisation has delivered support to vulnerable Canberrans on more than 15,000 occasions. The potential loss of Community Options is not the loss of a service established a few years ago; it is the loss of more than three decades of community knowledge, relationships and support that thousands of Canberrans have relied upon.
On 23 July 2026, the Community Options Board unanimously resolved to commence an orderly organisational wind-down and prepare for voluntary closure. No alternative funding or commissioning pathway had been confirmed at the time of the decision.
Community Options recognises that there is currently no government commitment to preserve the organisation. It is now asking the ACT Government to ensure that the flexible support it provides is not lost when Community Options closes.
Chief Executive Officer Brendan Taber said the issue was no longer whether Community Options could be saved, but what would happen to Canberrans whose needs do not fit the eligibility rules of existing systems.
“For 35 years, Community Options has stood beside people whose lives and needs do not fit neatly within the rules of a single service,” Mr Taber said.
“That scale of support highlights a simple truth: when systems are fragmented, complex or inaccessible, people need trusted services that can navigate barriers and ensure they are not left to face those challenges alone.”
The people supported include tenants at risk of losing their Housing ACT homes because of hoarding, who need patient and practical assistance to make their homes safe and sustain their tenancies.
They include vulnerable mothers who must attend mandatory appointments but cannot access the transport assistance needed to get their children to day care, and families confronting chronic illness or a life-limiting diagnosis who do not qualify for Community Assistance and Temporary Supports, the NDIS, aged care or another established program.
“These people do not stop needing help simply because they do not meet a program’s eligibility criteria,” Mr Taber said.
“The closure of Community Options will remove a pathway that has supported thousands of people over many years. Without a replacement flexible-support pathway, future Canberrans in the same circumstances may have nowhere appropriate to turn.”
Community Options has written to the Minister for Health, Dr Marisa Paterson MLA, seeking an urgent response on how this service gap will be addressed. At the time of publication, no meaningful response had been received.
The closure may also result in more than 200 years of combined workforce experience being lost from the ACT community sector.
“Our staff know Canberra’s services, have trusted relationships across the sector and understand what to do when there is no obvious pathway,” Mr Taber said.
“Once that capability is dismantled, it will be difficult and costly to rebuild. We are asking the Government to act now to preserve the flexible service model, referral pathways and workforce knowledge that vulnerable Canberrans will continue to need.”
Subject to Members endorsement and professional advice, Community Options will continue supporting existing clients while arranging safe transitions through to 31 December 2026. Client services and client-service positions are expected to end by that date, with voluntary solvent winding up expected to progress in March 2027.
Community Options is calling on the ACT Government to establish and fund a clear pathway for people excluded from existing services, preserve flexible support capacity and retain the sector knowledge of experienced workers wherever possible.
“This is not a campaign to preserve Community Options for its own sake. We are preparing to close, but the vulnerable Canberrans will continue to need the flexible services Community Options has provided since 1989. ” Mr Taber said.
