12th July 2026
Yes. And more than most people expect, because the law is on your side in a way it is not in a care home.
This is one of the biggest differences between supported living and residential care, and it is the one families most often do not realise they can push on. You are not being placed. You are choosing a home, and in a shared home you should have a say in who else is in it.
At Falcon Housing Association we believe everyone should have influence over where they live and who they live with. Here is how that works in practice, and where the limits genuinely are.
Key takeaway
- In supported living you hold your own tenancy, which is why choice exists at all. You are a tenant in your own home, not a resident in someone else’s building.
- The Care and Support (Choice of Accommodation) Regulations 2014 name supported living as a type of accommodation where a preference must be honoured. Where the care and support plan says needs will be met in supported living and you have expressed a preference for a particular home, the council must arrange it if certain conditions are met.
- Those conditions are practical: the accommodation must be the same type as the plan specifies, must be suitable for your needs, and the provider must agree to the council’s terms. Where the preferred home costs more, a top-up may be required.
- In shared homes, matching matters more than vacancies. A good provider will introduce people before anything is signed. A provider who cannot tell you anything about your future housemates is filling a bed.
- If you want no housemates at all, self-contained supported living exists. Own bedroom, own bathroom, own kitchen, own front door, support still available.
Why you get a say at all
In a care home, the provider owns the building, the room and the arrangement. In supported living, the housing and the care are legally separate. You rent your home from a landlord and receive support from a different organisation.
That separation is not a technicality. It is what gives you the standing of a tenant, and tenants get to have opinions about where they live.
It also means a change of care provider does not cost you your home, and a move to a different home does not have to cost you your care team. Those two things being unbundled is the whole design.
What the law actually says about choosing
Section 30 of the Care Act 2014 and the Choice of Accommodation Regulations give this real teeth, and supported living accommodation is specifically named as one of the types covered.
Where your care and support plan says your needs will be met through supported living, and you have expressed a preference for particular accommodation of that type, the local authority must arrange your preference. Not consider it. Arrange it.
Four conditions attach. The accommodation has to be the same type as specified in the plan. It has to be suitable for your needs. The provider has to agree to provide it on the council’s terms. And where the preferred option costs more than the council would ordinarily pay, someone may need to pay the difference as a top-up.
Most families never hear about this, and it is worth naming in a review meeting. “We would like to express a preference under the Choice of Accommodation Regulations” is a sentence that changes the tone of a conversation.
The honest limit is the second condition. Suitability is assessed, not chosen, and if a home genuinely does not meet someone’s needs then a preference for it will not survive that test.
How matching works in a shared home
Shared supported living means your own bedroom, sometimes with an ensuite, and shared kitchen, living room and often bathrooms. Whether that works depends almost entirely on who else lives there.
Decent providers do this properly. That usually means understanding what someone actually needs from a household before looking at what is empty, then arranging introductions rather than a single viewing.
Things worth asking about a potential home. What are the current tenants’ routines, and do they clash with yours? Is the house noisy or quiet? Are people out at day services or mostly home? Does anyone have needs that might make daily life harder for you, or vice versa? What happened the last time a placement in this house did not work?
Visit more than once if you can. Visit at different times of day. A house at eleven on a Tuesday morning is a different place at six on a Friday evening.
Existing tenants should get a say too. A well-run house asks the people already living there how they feel about someone moving in, and takes the answer seriously.
When someone cannot make the decision themselves
Some people cannot weigh up a housing decision, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.
Where that is the case, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 applies. Capacity is assessed for the specific decision at the specific time, not as a general label, and someone may be able to decide who they want to live near even if they cannot follow a tenancy agreement.
Where a person genuinely lacks capacity for the decision, it must be made in their best interests, taking account of their past and present wishes, their feelings, beliefs and values, and the views of family, carers and anyone with legal authority. Someone with substantial difficulty being involved is entitled to an independent advocate.
Best interests does not mean whatever is easiest to arrange. If someone has spent thirty years hating noise and being frightened of strangers, a busy six-bed house is not in their best interests because it happens to have a vacancy.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Can you refuse to live with someone in supported living?
A: Yes. You hold your own tenancy and you are not obliged to accept a particular household. Expressing a preference under the Choice of Accommodation Regulations is a formal route, and simply saying no to a house that does not feel right is always open to you.
Q: Can you meet your housemates before moving in?
A: You should be able to, and a provider who will not arrange it is worth questioning. Introductions before anything is signed are normal practice in a well-run service.
Q: Can you live alone in supported living?
A: Yes. Self-contained supported living gives you your own bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living space, with support available as needed rather than housemates.
Q: Can couples live together in supported living?
A: Often yes, though it depends on the property and both people’s assessed needs. Raise it early, because it affects which homes are suitable.
Q: Who decides who moves into a shared supported living house?
A: The housing provider decides who to offer a tenancy to, usually working with the local authority and the support provider. Existing tenants should be consulted, and their views should carry weight.
Q: What if the council says there is no choice available?
A: Ask for that in writing, including what options were considered. If a suitable home exists and you have expressed a preference, the Choice of Accommodation Regulations may apply, and the council’s complaints process and then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman are open to you.
Q: Can you move if you do not get on with your housemates?
A: Yes. Ask for a review of the care and support plan and tell both the housing and support providers early. Because the tenancy and the care package are separate, moving home does not automatically mean changing care team.
The bit nobody wants to say out loud
Choice is real, and it is limited by what exists.
Specialist supported housing is not evenly spread across the country. In some areas there is genuine choice. In others the honest answer is that there is one suitable property within thirty miles and someone is already living in it.
That is a supply problem rather than a rights problem, and pretending otherwise sets families up for disappointment. What it does mean is that starting early matters enormously. Families who begin the housing conversation while the care assessment is still running usually get more options than families who wait for everything to be signed off first.
It also means that waiting for the right match is often better than taking the first available bed. A placement that breaks down in four months costs the person far more than a few extra months of waiting did.
If it is not working out
Sometimes a household that looked right on paper does not work in practice. People change, needs change, and personalities that seemed compatible turn out not to be.
Raise it early rather than waiting for a crisis. Tell the support provider and the housing provider, and ask for a review of the care and support plan. You can request a review at any time when circumstances change.
Moving is possible. Because the tenancy and the care are separate, a move does not have to mean starting over with everything at once.
Talk to us
We work with tenants, families, social workers and care providers to find homes that fit the person rather than fitting the person into whatever is empty. That sometimes means telling people we are not the right match, and we would rather do that than watch a tenancy fail.
If you are looking at supported living for yourself or someone you love, get in touch and we will talk it through honestly.
Call 0191 406 4857 or email hello@falconha.org. You can also read about self-contained supported living, shared supported living, and see our available properties.