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Chapter XIX: Affordable Assistance Housing Program

Effective: December 2003

(Formerly referred to as MEDICAID WAIVER)

Introduction

The Affordable Assisted Housing Program (AAHP) was developed in the year 2000 to address the lack of affordable housing for elderly and/or disabled clients who are forced to remain or enter nursing home facilities because they cannot afford suitable housing in the community. This project combines 125 MSHDA Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) with the Michigan Medicaid Waiver Program (called MI Choice) to provide eligible clients with a choice of affordable assisted living housing as an alternative to nursing home care. Affordable assisted living housing can be an apartment or home within a community or a unit in an assisted living facility

MI Choice waivers assist low-income clients who qualify for nursing home care to receive long-term care services in a community setting. It is a waiver to Medicaid rules, which allows the client to get the services they need and allow Medicaid to pay for these services. MI Choice pays for and provides an array of support services such as personal care, homemaking, medical equipment, and transportation. MI Choice is available through designated agencies throughout Michigan and a limited number are assigned to these designated agencies each year.

Currently the program is a pilot program and is operating only in Macomb and Oakland counties. At the present time, MSHDA works with the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) and Macomb Oakland Regional Center (MORC), two agencies in those counties that work with the MI Choice program.

MSHDA administers this program in accordance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations for their Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program.

Section A: Eligibility

The eligibility criteria for the AAHP HCV is that the applicant must:

  1. have a MI Choice Waiver;
  2. be elderly (at least 62 years of age) and/or disabled;
  3. be single, or a married couple if both persons will occupy the same residence; i.e. a husband cannot live in a nursing home and the wife elsewhere;
  4. have applied for HCV assistance and be on the appropriate county waiting list based on their current residency.

Preference will be given to applicants that are in a nursing home or in danger of going into a nursing home.

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