While some countries are already in the phase of post-deinstitutionalization, Austria is still on its way out of traditional institutional forms of housing. In the conservative-corporatist and federal character of the Austrian welfare state, the nine subnational units (Bundesländer) are responsible for legislation and funding of social services in this field. The applied subnational comparison is based on nine case study analysis. The analysis shows that different strategies towards deinstitutionalization and its opposite are active.The variety of service types differs within Austria, but strategies favoring institutionalization can be found in all subnational units, as the option for residential care is provided in all subnational disability laws. The comparative analysis shows that financial limitations and a maximum of service hours for assistive and mobile services - which inhibit the process of deinstitutionalization - can be found in the normative guidelines.Services are provided almost exclusively by private providers and the structure of the providers is heterogenous from subnational unit to subnational unit and alternates between church and charitable providers as well as civil society providers. Some service providers tend to enable approximate deinstitutionalization, as they try to offer smaller supported shared flats and thus enable more independent living.