State offers help for those battling illness, addiction
training on how to be a responsible tenant, mobile crisis management teams that respond in mental-health emergencies and one-time payments for moving expenses.
“Some of these services … are considered really critical to helping them be successful,” said Secretary Mary Mayhew of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, which worked with the federal government for three years to get the Medicaid waiver necessary for the program.
Medicaid uses federal and state money to provide health coverage to millions of Americans, including people with disabilities. The Florida Legislature has appropriated $10 million annually for the housing assistance initiative, which is expected to lower medical costs by keeping people healthier and out of emergency rooms.
“This has been a long journey,” said Karen Koch, executive director of the Florida Supportive Housing Coalition. The impact of housing on the lives of people with behavioral health problems is dramatic, she said, often because of such simple conveniences as “the opportunity to have a refrigerator to put your medication in, the opportunity to lock a door.”
Homeless people with serious mental illness or addiction issues are often the most difficult to house.
“Often landlords are reluctant because … of their illness,” Mayhew said. “Certainly if they’re a better tenant, if they’re able to manage more effectively, will be fewer] concerns damage to the property.”
At least some of the people expected to benefit from the program are military veterans, Mayhew noted. [there about