Using Medicaid to Pay for Services in Permanent Supportive Housing: Steps for CoC Leads to Get Started

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is an effective intervention for ending chronic homelessness. An essential part of the PSH model is a package of health care and supportive services that helps people with disabilities get and stay housed. Those services, however, cost money - money that can be difficult to identify, secure, and sustain. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recommends Medicaid as a potential funding resource for supportive services, but the process to secure this resource can be complex and overwhelming.

To address this challenge, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Technical Assistance Collaborative, and the Corporation for Supportive Housing have developed this “how to” guide, offering five steps to help Continuum of Care (CoC) and other service system leaders build a case for why and how Medicaid can be structured to pay for services in permanent supportive housing at the state and local levels. (2016)