Housing Stabilization Services

Housing Stabilization Services is a Minnesota Medicaid benefit to support finding and sustaining housing, regardless of your circumstances.

We help clients access all available resource to find their perfect placement. If you or a loved one needs help with housing issues, this benefit may be right for you!

Background and Eligibility

About Housing Stabilization Services

Housing Stabilization Services is housing case management. We assist clients with:

  • Enrolling in housing assistance and voucher programs

  • Creating a housing budget

  • Finding housing within your budget

  • Signing a lease

  • Staying on time with housing payments

  • Conflict resolution

  • Maintaining housing security

Eligibility (see DHS website)

A person is eligible for housing stabilization services if they are enrolled in Medical Assistance and 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 instutional 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)

Our Services

  • Assistance with accessing documentation required for Housing Stabilization Services eligibility

    Developing a Housing Focused Person-Centered Plan based on assessment outcomes

    Support in identifying strengths, needs and wants in housing including cultural requirements and/or preferences

    Support in making an informed choice in housing transition or sustaining provider

    Offering resource information for services that support non-housing related goals as identified in the person-centered planning process

    Coordinating with other service providers

    Helping understand your rights to privacy and appeal information

    Annually updating the person-centered plan as it relates to housing

  • Developing a housing transition plan

    Support in applying for benefits to afford their housing, including screening for eligibility

    Assisting with the housing search and application process

    Assisting with tenant screening and housing assessments

    Providing transportation

    Helping understand and develop a budget

    Help negotiating a lease

    Helping to meet and build a relationship with a prospective landlord

    Promoting/supporting cultural practice needs and understandings with prospective landlords, property managers

    Helping find funding for deposits

    Helping organize your move

  • Developing, updating and modifying the housing support and crisis/safety plan on a regular basis

    Preventing and early identification of behaviors that may jeopardize continued housing

    Educating and training on roles, rights, and responsibilities of the tenant and property manager

    Transportation related to housing

    Promoting/supporting cultural practice needs and understandings with landlords, property managers and neighbors

    Coaching to develop and maintain key relationships with property managers and neighbors

    Advocating with community resources to prevent eviction when housing is at risk and maintaining safety

    Assistance with the housing recertification processes

    Continued training on being a good tenant, lease compliance, and household management

    Support in applying for benefits to retain housing

    Support maintaining/increasing income and benefits to retain housing

    Supporting the building of natural housing supports and resources in the community including building supports and resources related to culture and identity

    Working with property manager or landlord to promote housing retention

    Arranging for assistive technology*

    Arranging for adaptive house related accommodations.

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