Housing

The CMS Systems Change conference was February 28-March 2, 2005. Presentations from the 2005 sessions are available in both PDF and text formats. Topics range from ideas on sustaining systems change, employment services, Medicaid, integrating quality, policy implications and barriers to providing services. Full titles are listed in the keywords section.

Case study reports on programs in 9 states that received federal Nursing Home Transition Grants from 1998 - 2000 are now available. New reports describe programs, implementation, and lessons learned from transition programs in Arkansas, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Michigan, Wisconsin and from a hospital to nursing home diversion program in Colorado.

The Massachusetts Supportive Housing Program (SHP) was developed in 1999 to strengthen coordination between housing and service agencies to support aging in place by creating an “assisted living like” environment in state funded, public elderly housing. On site service coordination and seven-day a week, 24-hour available personal care services contribute to important resident perceptions of increased safety and security.

This summary is of housing data for all civilian non-institutionalized people with a disability as well as the housing data for people without a disability, based 2000 Census data. Comparisons between households of people with a disability and without a disability will be made on areas such as: poverty level, number of people in household, tenure, utilities and vehicle ownership, mobile home ownership, number of bedrooms, home value, monthly owner costs and gross rent.

The sixth biennial edition of the AARP Public Policy Institute's databook, presents an overview of long-term care in each state plus the District of Columbia by using numbers, graphs, charts, and maps. Data includes each state's demographics, need for LTC and HCBS services, the number of LTC workers per thousand people aged 65 and over, urban average for private-pay home health aide wages, and CNA hours per resident day. Each state is compared with others through rankings and national averages.

On 2/1/05, HUD issued new guidelines to public housing authorities on using the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program to assist people with disabilities. These new guidelines are part of the President’s New Freedom Initiation and Executive Order ton Community-Based Alternatives for Individuals with Disabilities. The new guidelines clarify issues related to issuance and preservation of certain types of special purpose vouchers for disabled families

On 3/4/05, HUD issued the estimated Median Family Incomes for FY2005. Changes were made in response to 283 public comments received during the second comment period and 26 random digit-dialing surveys conducted from September to November. These estimates have been calculated for 356 metropolitan and 2,302 non-metropolitan areas across the nation. Utilizing the Fair Market Rents (FMR) area definitions applied in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program the estimates incomes were calculated.

The Compendium contains basic information about each of the Real Choice Systems Change Grantees. The Compendium will help you learn more about how these grants will be used to allow more people of all ages with a disability or long term illness to live and participate in their communities. Real Choice Systems Change Grantees will also find the Compendium useful to identify other Grantees with similar goals and activities. The fourth edition of the Compendium replaces all previous editions.

The supply of affordable assisted living facilities is now insufficient to meet the demands of low-income, frail older persons. This gap between demand and supply is much more apparent in some locations than others. This article uses various measures of locational inequality to assess the extent to which counties in Florida have less than their fair share of ALFs, particularly in comparison to the locations of Medicaid nursing home beds.

The “Housing Search Guide” was developed to assist professionals who have a role in “relocation” of people with disabilities from nursing facilities to community living arrangements with appropriate services and supports. The Guide was developed by staff of the Texas Independent Living Partnership, a program of ARCIL, Inc. funded by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services under the “Real Choice Systems Change” program.