Including People in Institutions as "Homeless"

Steve Gold's Information Bulletin #262 This is a very brief FYI. Last week in the NY Times, it was reported that "lawmakers in Congress are debating who should be considered homeless." This is a very important definition, because different Congressional and HUD programs are targeted to persons who are "homeless" and are denied to persons who do not meet the definition. The NY Times stated that the House and Senate are considering an expansion of the definition "to include people precariously housed: those doubled up with friends or relatives or living day to day in motels, with money and options running out." Also being discussed is whether to include "families in desperate need of stable housing" or "people fleeing their homes because of domestic violence and those who can prove they will lose their housing within 14 days." Missing, obviously, are all the elderly and people with disabilities who are institutionalized in nursing facilities, and especially the 22.6% (309,580 people) of those institutionalized who stated they want to leave the institution and live in the community. Residing in a nursing facility is not by any stretch a "home." There are none of the indicia of a home. There is no privacy, no kitchen, no rental agreement, no dignity, no opportunity to contest living conditions, and those are just the beginning! HUD, in the prior federal administration, acknowledged and wrote people living in a nursing facility were"homeless." CMS has correctly written that housing is a primary barrier for many people to leave nursing facilities. Why should one hand of the federal government, i.e., CMS, make payments (in FY 2006, $47.7 billion) for Medicaid recipients in nursing facilities, when another hand of the federal government, HUD, could significantly reduce those expenditures by defining people in institutions as "homeless" and therefore making them entitled to "homeless" housing funds so they could leave the nursing facilities. Elderly and disability advocates: We do not think your elected congressional or senatorial representatives have heard from you on this issue. If you want to increase the supply of affordable, accessible, integrated housing for people in nursing facilities, now is the time to do something. Telephone and write your federally elected officials and demand that people in institutions be included in the new definition for "homeless." Back issues of other Information Bulletins are available online at http://www.stevegoldada.com/ with a searchable Archive at this site divided into different subjects. To contact Steve Gold directly, write to stevegoldada@cs.com.