How we can help

What are Housing Stabilization Services or HSS?

HSS are a Medical Assistance benefit to help people with disabilities and seniors find and keep housing.

What does HSS do?

HSS providers can assist eligible adults with the following:

• Support in applying for benefits to afford housing, including helping determine which benefits you may be eligible for
• Assisting with the housing search and application process
• Assisting with tenant screening and housing assessments
• Providing transportation for housing related issues
• Helping understand and develop a budget
• Helping understand and negotiate a lease
• Helping meet and build a relationship with a prospective landlord
• Promoting/supporting culture practice needs and understandings with prospective landlords/property managers
• Helping find funding for deposits, home goods, or moving expenses
• Helping organize moves
• Researching and contacting possible housing options
• Completing housing applications
• Working to expunge records or access reasonable accommodations
• Identifying services and benefits that will support the person with housing instability
• Ensuring the new living arrangement is safe and ready for move-in
• Arranging for any adaptive house-related accommodations or assistive technology
• Developing, updating, and modifying housing support and crisis/safety plans
• Preventing and early identification of behaviors that may jeopardize housing
• Educating and training on tenant roles, rights, and responsibilities
• Coaching to develop and maintain key relationships with property managers, landlords, and neighbors
• Advocating with community resources to prevent eviction when housing is at risk
• Assistance with the housing recertification processes
• Training on being a good tenant, lease compliance, and household management
• Help to apply for benefits to retain housing
• Supporting the building of natural housing supports and resources in the community including building supports related to a person’s culture and identity
• Working with property manager or landlord to promote housing retention

Who is Eligible for HSS?

In order to be eligible for HSS, an individual must meet all of the following needs-based criteria:

• Be on Medical Assistance (MA)
• Be 18 years old or older
• Have a documented disability or disabling condition, defined as one of the following:
  • A person who is aged, blind or has a disability as described under Title II of the Social Security Act.
  • A person with an injury or illness that is expected to cause extended or long-term incapacitation.
  • A person with a developmental disability (or related condition) or mental illness.
  • A person with a mental health condition, substance use disorder or physical injury that required a residential level of care and who is now in the process of transitioning to the community.
  • A person who is determined to have a learning disability according to policy adopted by Department of Human Services (DHS); or
  • A person with a substance use disorder and is enrolled in a treatment program or is on a waiting list for a treatment program.
• Be assessed to require assistance with at least one of the following areas resulting from the presence of a disability or a long-term or indefinite condition:
  • Communication
  • Mobility
  • Decision-making; or
  • Managing challenging behaviors
• Be experiencing housing instability, evidenced by one of the following risk factors:
  • Homeless. An individual or family is considered homeless when they lack a fixed, adequate nighttime residence; or
  • Currently transitioning, or has recently transitioned, from an institution or licensed or registered setting (registered housing with services facility, board and lodge, boarding care, adult foster care or community residential setting, hospital, Intermediate Care Facility for persons with Developmental Disabilities (ICF/DD), intensive residential treatment services, the Minnesota Security Hospital, nursing facility, regional treatment center); or
  • At risk of homelessness. An individual or family is at risk of homelessness when
    • a) the individual or family is faced with a situation or set of circumstances likely to cause the household to become homeless, including but not limited to: doubled-up living arrangements where the individual’s name is not on a lease, living in a condemned building without a place to move, having arrears in rent or utility payments, receiving an eviction notice without a place to move or living in temporary or transitional housing that carries time limits; or
    • b) the person, previously homeless, will be discharged from a correctional, medical, mental health or substance use disorder treatment center and lacks sufficient resources to pay for housing, and does not have a permanent place to live; would be at risk of homelessness if housing services were removed
  • At risk of institutionalization – meets an institutional level of care/eligible for the following waivers:
    • Brain Injury (BI)
    • Community Access for Disability Inclusion (CADI)
    • Community Alternative Care (CAC)
    • Developmental Disability (DD)
    • Elderly Waiver (EW)

How Do I Get Started?

Send an inquiry to Cally at cproctor@spiritandsand.org or call 507-251-4473.