Sign On to the Housing as Health Coalition Principles

Safe, stable, affordable housing with supportive services improves the health, healthcare, and housing stability of individuals. Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program should strengthen supportive housing and related services as a cost-effective and prudent way to address the needs of individuals with substance use disorders, mental health issues, HIV/AIDS, or multiple chronic conditions. These individuals struggle with regular and consistent treatment and strong evidence supports connecting housing with services to help people stay housed and stay healthy.

Given new Federal support for such actions and research conducted on the feasibility of using Medicaid in Pennsylvania for supportive services, my organization joins the Housing as Health Coalition and supports the idea that Pennsylvania should:

• Define and cover supportive housing services using the new Federal guidelines, strengthening services and allowing providers to bill Medicaid for their services
• Include individuals with a substance use disorder in coverage for supportive housing services
• Build capacity in the Medicaid delivery system with managed care entities to support the integration of supportive housing services into the whole-person model of care.
• Call on managed care entities to train service providers on covered benefits for supportive housing services, billing for those benefits, and developing collaborative partnerships
• Encourage counties to invest any cost savings back in quality supportive housing services and housing systems.