A MERGER between a Bendigo-based housing service provider and a disability specialist housing provider presents an opportunity to further explore specific local housing issues, the group's chief executive says.

Melbourne-based Active Community Housing will become part of The Haven Group from July 1.

Haven chief executive Ken Marchingo said Active already managed housing stock in central Victoria.

"They tend to do that by outreach from their office in Melbourne," he said.

"If and as we grow the housing stock it will certainly grow their footprint and it will grow our footprint."

An increase in housing options for people with disability is what the merger is working toward, but it remains to be seen how much of that work will be in central Victoria.

Mr Marchingo said the merger was an opportunity for the group to work more closely with local disability organisations to ascertain exact demand and start to seek solutions to people's housing problems.

"People with complex, profound disabilities are often very vulnerable and very much at risk in residential rental markets," he said.

"For us to be able to now absorb Active Community Housing under the Haven Home Safe roof allows us to bring the strength and robustness of our size and balance sheet, our borrowing capacity, and will enable us to now work with Active to expand the pool of housing options available for people with disability."

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About 30 per cent of Haven's tenant base received the disability support pension, but Mr Marchingo said not all of those people had profound and complex needs.

"But where they do have profound and complex needs, it makes sense to have a specialist part of the organisation that can help them with their tenancy needs," Mr Marchingo said.

"The key thing about this particular merger is Active Community Housing will remain as its own specialist entity."

Both Haven and Active will continue operating under their respective brands.

Mr Marchingo said the NDIS also factored into the merger.

"There is the inescapable observation that with the shift of disability services to the new NDIS scheme, there are opportunities to get more people housed," he said.

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Only a fraction of NDIS participants are eligible for specialist disability housing - about six per cent, according to Mr Marchingo. But there's more to it than that.

"There are significant demands for home modification services... for the application and supply of assistive technology," Mr Marchingo said.

Haven and Active partnered to deliver an assistive housing hub showcasing the available technologies to assist people living with disability. The hub, in the Melbourne suburb of Preston, launched last month.

Mr Marchingo said Haven's capacity to deliver boutique housing solutions and Active's experience with disability specialist housing created a significant opportunity to get more people housed.

"We have form in this area, and we have a number of sites we're looking at around Victoria to see whether or not we can develop," he said.

EARLIER:

A BENDIGO-BASED housing service provider is seeking to boost specialist accommodation and services for people with disability.

Haven; Home, Safe has today announced a merger with Melbourne-based disability specialist housing provider Active Community Housing.

Active will become part of The Haven Group from July 1. Its chief executive, Chris Glennen, will join The Haven Group's executive management team.

Haven; Home, Safe and Active will keep operating under their existing brand names.

"For the people we support, our staff, our stakeholders and our communities, it is very much business as usual," Haven; Home Safe acting chair Jan Boynton said.

The two not-for-profit organisations last month launched a hub showcasing assistive housing opportunities.

Ms Boynton said the organisations had seen the benefits of scale and worked together closely to create a better outcome for the people they supported, their staff, their stakeholders, and the community in general.

Active chair Warwick Cavanagh said the merger would deliver greater depth and breadth of innovative, quality services and increased capacity to invest in areas of growing need.

"This decision is about extending Active's mission, not diminishing it," Mr Cavanagh said.

Mr Glennen said the merger was Active's best opportunity to create more accessible housing and achieve better outcomes for people with disability in the wider community.

"The specialist disability accommodation housing market is a new and exciting market that is expected to create thousands of new dwellings over the next few years and ultimately deliver better outcomes for people with very high and complex disability support needs."

Together, The Haven Group chief executive Ken Marchingo said the organisations would have a stronger advocacy voice and access to broader resources and skills to meet their clients' needs.

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