Medicaid and Permanent Supportive Housing for Chronically Homeless Individuals: Emerging Practices from the Field
- ISBN-10
- 150849617X
- ISBN-13
- 9781508496175
- Pages
- 210
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-02-16
- Publisher
- CreateSpace
- Author
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Description
When the Federal Government first committed to ending chronic homelessness in 2003, it understood that permanent supportive housing (PSH) would be a big part of reaching that goal. Since then, federal and other resources have helped to add more than 140,000 PSH beds, bringing the PSH-bed total to 284,298 in January 2013. The impact of these new units is evident: the number of people with histories of chronic homelessness found in unsheltered locations decreased by about 25 percent between 2007 and 2013 (HUD 2013). Going forward, an understanding of Medicaid's potential as a funding source for PSH services is especially important because eligibility for Medicaid expanded dramatically on January 1, 2014, in 25 states and the District of Columbia. Because they are very poor, most people experiencing homelessness are Medicaid-eligible as a result of the expansion, even if they were not eligible under the rules that applied in 2013 and earlier. In anticipation of changes stemming from the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), hired Abt Associates in October 2010 to conduct a study to explore the roles that Medicaid, Health Centers, and other HHS programs might play in providing services linked to housing for people who experienced chronic homelessness before moving into PSH. This study examined three pieces of a complex puzzle that if assembled correctly can end chronic homelessness: (1) chronic homelessness itself; (2) permanent supportive housing; and (3) Medicaid's potential to fund health-related supportive services. It looked at program innovations already in practice, because the best indicators of Medicaid's potential usefulness to people experiencing homelessness are the ways that today's providers are using Medicaid to cover some of the support in supportive housing; that is, health and behavioral health care for people who have been chronically homeless and are now living in PSH.
