15 States Do Not Need Housing Vouchers for Disabled Persons to Leave Institutions. Information Bulletin #364 (8/2012). States had to file an application with HUD to be eligible to receive some of the FY 2012 Section 811 Project-based Rental Assistance Demonstration Grants, aka the Melville vouchers. The good news is that 35 States (and D.C.) applied and will compete to receive these vouchers. Congratulations to disability advocates who worked with your State agencies to develop and submit these applications. What is amazing is that 15 States did NOT apply. While we recognize that many of the 35 States that did apply may not win the competition, these 35 at least got into the race. What about the 15 States that did NOT apply? These 15 States obviously have an abundance of housing vouchers, just sitting around in some drawer, so that anyone who wishes to leave an institution will receive a voucher and not have housing as a barrier to living in the community. Right? These 15 States do not claim that their Money Follows the Person is hampered by housing, do they? Are we correct? Can disability advocates in the 15 States just telephone their State Housing Finance agency and/or Medicaid agency and pick up a housing voucher that is not being used? What are we missing? Why did these 15 States not compete? Here are the 15: Alabama Arizona Arkansas Hawaii Idaho Iowa Kansas Kentucky Nebraska New Mexico Oklahoma South Carolina Tennessee Virginia Wyoming Steve Gold, The Disability Odyssey continues Back issues of other Information Bulletins are available online at http://www.stevegoldada.com with a searchable Archive at this site divided into different subjects. As of August, 2010, Information Bulletins will also be posted on my blog located at http://stevegoldada.blogspot.com/ To contact Steve Gold directly, write to stevegoldada1@gmail.com or call 215-627-7100. Ext 227.