A man who is afraid to go to the toilet and an assault victim who sleeps in the hallway are among the many people living in fear in disability group homes.
Some people with disability have had to move out of their homes for extended periods because of violent housemates, the disability royal commission has been told.
Advocate Kevin Stone said many people in group homes fear violence from other residents or staff.
"They, many times, in many situations, live in fear," the CEO of the Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability said on Wednesday.
Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability CEO Kevin Stone (left) and Alan Robertson who grew up in institutions and is now a disability advocate Source: AAP
"Most of those incidents of client-to-client abuse are a direct result of basically herding people together without choice, without compatibility, in compressed situations."
Mr Stone said people were also fearful of what would happen if they spoke up.
One of VALID's recent cases involved a man who was afraid to go to the toilet because of the violence in his group home.
"One client in a group home has been sleeping on the floor in the hallway because she is no longer able to access her bedroom," Mr Stone told the Melbourne hearing.
"Another client assaulted her and the service provider has been unable to find suitable alternative accommodation for either client, leading to one client sleeping in the hallway to avoid contact with a violent resident."
Mr Stone said in one case a resident ended up in the hospital with a spinal fracture after allegedly being assaulted by a staff member, while another was punched in the face by an employee.
He said faeces was smeared over the bathroom walls in one group home, which also had no crockery.
Victoria's disability services commissioner Arthur Rogers receives complaints ranging from the quality of support given to someone in a group home to "quite abusive, intolerable situations".
Mr Rogers said there were also cases of the unauthorised use of restraints, such as a person not being allowed out of their room because of compatibility issues with other residents or food being locked away.
"Those are matters which seem to be acceptable within homes and when they come to our attention, we clearly point out they're not," he said.
Mr Rogers said the use of restraint without authorisation under Victoria's Disability Act was also unlawful, although he did not know of any service provider being prosecuted in recent years.
The disability services commissioner receives about 1000 major incident reports a year, but service providers are now able to determine what falls into that category when self-reporting.
Mr Rogers said that change led to a 35 per cent reduction in incident reporting from the non-government sector last financial year.
The royal commission's Melbourne hearing is focusing on group homes where four-to-six people with disability live, after shocking cases of rapes and violence in Victoria.
