Federal Government will start PAYING off people's rent in two states starting this YEAR under new $1.5billion Medicaid pilot program

• The number of homeless Americans hit a record high in 2023

• More than 80million Americans are enrolled in government's Medicaid program

READ MORE: California is America's epicenter of the homelessness crisis

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13079135/Federal-Government-start-PAYING-peoples-rent-two-states-starting-YEAR-new-Medicaid-program-treat-homelessness-healthcare-problem.html

States will soon begin paying for residents' housing using federal healthcare funding in hopes it will help curb America's homelessness epidemic.

The Biden administration has granted permission to several states to implement a new Medicaid waiver program that will allow states to pay for housing fees as part of the government's initiative to reclassify homelessness as a healthcare issue.

The rental assistance will come in several forms, including a one-time payment to help cover a security deposit or to pay for rent and utilities for up to six months.

The first two states to roll out the program this fall, Arizona and Oregon, will target specific subpopulations of Medicaid beneficiaries who qualify under each states' specific guidelines - which includes people currently homeless or at risk of losing housing and people with mental illness.

In Arizona, which will allocate $550million of its Medicaid funding to the program, 2.5million people are enrolled in the healthcare program.

Oregon will spend part of its $1billion Medicaid budget to combat homelessness through several initiatives, including the rental assistance program. Approximately 125,000 beneficiaries qualify for the new program in the state.

The waiver program has been approved as the US homelessness crisis reaches an all-time high and rents skyrocket, leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans living on the streets.

Advocates of the plan argue homelessness qualifies as a public health issue, putting a strain on the healthcare system and costing millions of dollars per year, thus states should be allowed to use federal funding to help provide people with stable housing.

The change in policy is being implemented through a program that permits states to experiment with new ways of utilizing Medicaid money.

Prior to this, Congressional restrictions only allowed the funding to be used for nursing home or medical facility payments, but in recent years states have been moving to use Medicaid money in broader public health measures, including housing assistance.

Medicaid is the US government's program that provides health insurance to adults and children with limited income and resources.

The latest data from October 2023 reported approximately 80.3million Americans were enrolled in the program.

Arizona and Oregon will be piloting the initiative with a certain subset of people on Medicaid beginning in October and November, respectively.

Arizona has 14,200 unhoused residents and Oregon has 20,100 unhoused residents.

Oregon, which has a total of 1.5million people on Medicaid, plans to use the funding to assist beneficiaries at risk of losing housing in an effort to prevent homelessness.

It could also help people suffering from a behavioral health crisis, those hospitalized with a long-term health condition or pregnant women in need of resources.

Assistance will include either a one-time payment to help with a security deposit or it will cover rent and utilities for up to six months.