Minnesota’s Medical Assistance Housing Stabilization Services program will end on Friday, Oct. 31. 

The Minnesota Department of Human Services in August announced its interest in terminating the program due to widespread fraud. The termination recently received final approval from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Launched in 2020, Housing Stabilization Services was a Medical Assistance benefit designed to help seniors and people with disabilities, including substance use disorders, find and keep housing. Medical Assistance is Minnesota’s Medicaid program.

“It’s upsetting that we had to take this step to stop criminals from taking advantage of services intended to help people,” said temporary Human Services Commissioner Shireen Gandhi. “We know that Housing Stabilization Services truly filled an important gap for so many participants. We’re working closely with partners to help them connect people to other services wherever possible.”

The Minnesota Legislature and the Department of Human Services took strong actions this year to improve oversight of Housing Stabilization Services, with more stringent requirements for vetting providers and additional tools for investigating fraud. However, as the scope of fraud in the program became more apparent, the agency decided that Minnesota could not afford to wait and see how effective the new program integrity measures would be.

The Department of Human Services received and responded to more than 200 comments during a 30-day public comment period about the end of the program and published a summary of the comments online. One of the most common themes was concern for program participants affected by the program’s termination.

The Department of Human Services is coordinating with counties, Tribes, Urban Indian organizations and managed care organizations to identify resources to help people impacted by the end of Housing Stabilization Services. Many of those resources are available at mn.gov/dhs/housing-resources.

The agency also has an FAQ for providers and clients with information about program termination.

The Department of Human Services remains committed to exploring a redesigned version of Housing Stabilization Services with stronger program integrity tools.