Assisted Living Waiver in Senior Public Housing

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The Community Development Commission/Housing Authority of the County of Los Angeles is the first public agency to embrace the availability of State Medi-Cal waivers for assisted living and to develop specific protocols that would facilitate replication of the new program in other public housing and publicly-subsidized housing for frail elderly and disabled persons. In 2005, the California Department of Health Care Services launched the Assisted Living Waiver pilot Project. This was a three-year home-based program limited to San Joaquin, Sacramento and Los Angeles Counties, to allow for frail elderly and disabled persons to receive assisted living services at home, rather than in a Medi-Cal reimbursed nursing home. Persons eligible to receive the benefit needed to be Medi-Cal eligible resident of Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly or publicly subsidized housing. Although the waiver worked well within Residential Care Facilities, which had in-house staff capacity, it was more difficult to implement within public housing. After years of trial and error, the Community Development Commission/Housing Authority of Los Angeles successfully implemented the program at South Bay Gardens and is moving to replicate it within other housing developments. This program now serves as a model for the successful integration of affordable housing with assisted living benefits in California.