Every Step . Project Nurture . Housing Pilot . High Acuity Behavioral Health . Autism Assessment Capacity
Housing Benefit Pilot
“Housing insecurity can severely impact people’s health. It is hard to heal a wound infection when struggling to find a safe place to sleep at night. Health Share initiated this housing pilot to try to improve health outcomes and member experience through addressing critical social needs. For Medicaid to step into this space of aligning health and housing is truly transformational.”
-Cat Livingston, MD, MPH Medical Director, Health Share of Oregon
Collaboration with Health & Housing Systems
Health Share collaborated with health and housing systems to study the potential addition of a housing benefit to existing Oregon Health Plan Medicaid coverage. The Housing Benefit Pilot (HBP) launched in May 2022. Through this two-year project, we enrolled 505 individuals who were at risk of or currently experiencing homelessness.
Key Statistics
‣ 517 Number of individuals enrolled
‣ $2,225 Average monthly cost per member while enrolled
‣ 20 Number of contracted CBO partners
‣ Most commonly utilized supports include monthly rent support, move-in fees, move-in support, and monthly utility assistance.
The program was designed to support individuals at vulnerable transition points in their lives by connecting them with community-based Housing Navigators as well as resources such as rental assistance and move-in support. Vulnerable transition times included leaving substance use residential care, reentering the community from the corrections system, and exiting the foster care system.
Services Offered
Housing navigation
Hotel/motel
Move-in support
Rent
Utilities
Home accessibility/safety
Renter’s insurance
For more information about Oregon's new Health Related Social Needs (HRSN) benefits, which will include housing as of November 2024, please visit Health Share of Oregon | Health Related Social Needs
Eligible Populations
‣ Leaving substance use residential care
‣ Reentering the community from the corrections system
‣ Exiting the foster care system
‣ Discharge from inpatient
Recuperative Care Program
Project Nurture
IMPACT
“Being able to focus on my recovery and not having to worry about where I’m going to live or if I’m going to be able to lay my head down at night. That was a huge, huge support in regard to my sobriety and my recovery.”
- Anonymous
“… I went from nothing to having something. Because when I moved in, I literally just came in with a suitcase with just a few clothing items and that's about it. The program provided everything I needed to start off with.”
- Anonymous
Evaluation Overview
Health Share is working with Providence's Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CORE) to evaluate this pilot, click here for a process overview. More information will be posted on this page as it becomes available.