HUD and HHS Award Housing Vouchers. Information Bulletin # 371 (2/2013) Yesterday, HUD and HHS jointly announced the award of 3,530 housing vouchers for people with disabilities with extremely low-incomes, i.e., less than 30 percent of the median income. These vouchers were competitive among States and are targeted to people transitioning out of institutional settings or at high risk of homelessness. Each State housing agency had to partner with the State’s Medicaid agency in order to identify and coordinate the transitioning out of institutional settings, in order ‘to identify, refer and conduct outreach to persons with disabilities who required long-term services and supports to live independently.” In announcing the vouchers, HUD noted that “today’s announcement reinforces the guiding principles of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the landmark 1999 Supreme Court ruling in Olmstead v. L.C., which require state and local governments to provide services in the most integrated settings appropriate to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities.” For the 13 States that were awarded these vouchers, advocates can find the specific program targets, populations, and targeted areas HUD approved -http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2013/HUDNo.13-024 Advocates should be in contact with your State Housing Agency that won the vouchers and work to make sure the vouchers really go to the people with disabilities and are in the most integrated setting. Here are the 13 States that won this competitive process. State Housing Agency # of units California Housing Finance Agency 335 Delaware State Housing Authority 170 Georgia Housing & Finance Authority 150 Illinois Housing Development Authority 826 Louisiana Housing Corporation 200 Massachusetts Dept. of Housing & Community Development 100 Maryland Dept. of Housing & Community Development 150 Minnesota Housing Finance Agency 95 Montana Dept. of Commerce 82 North Carolina Housing Finance Agency 562 Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency 200 Texas Dept. of Housing & Community Affairs 385 Washington State Dept. of Commerce 275 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. 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.