In honor of Autism Month, Autism Housing Pathways described ways to develop a housing strategy based on MassHealth’s Adult Family Care/Adult Foster Care program. The outline was issued as a series of daily Tweets in April. Here they are, in a single post. Bear in mind, this strategy is specific to Massachusetts.
The Adult Family Care (AFC) program can pay you to provide support to your adult child who lives with you.
To qualify for AFC, your child must need prompting with 1 or more activities of daily living. You can’t be the guardian.
Get your child on the Section 8 waiting list at 18 (or NOW, if they’re over 18). Go to www.18section8.org to learn how.
Are you saving the AFC stipend? If your family member waits 10 years for Sec. 8, that’s a $90K nest egg.
Section 8 is a part of HUD. A 13% cut in the HUD budget is proposed. The wait for a voucher could get longer.
One option: your child could rent a two bedroom apt. w/ Sec. 8. An Adult Foster Care provider could move in, too.
You could add a 2 bedroom accessory unit to your house for your child and an Adult Foster Care provider.
How to pay to add on the accessory unit? You saved the Adult Family Care stipend, right? It’s a start.
You could supplement what you saved from AFC with up to $30K from the Home Modification Loan Program. http://bit.ly/2lrSpJX
Make sure local zoning permits accessory units (possibly via a special permit). Otherwise, you may need to move first.
S. 729 would allow accessory units for a disabled family member as of right on lots of 5,000+ sq. ft. http://bit.ly/2nUD7mg
Or you could buy a condo for your child with space for an Adult Foster Care provider, using the AFC savings for a down payment.
Need a mortgage? Fannie Mae lets you get a 5% down mortgage to buy a home for a disabled adult child. http://bit.ly/1njEW6v
Or you could consider buying a three-family, and using the rent from the third unit for respite, maintenance, etc.
Or you could buy that three family with another family; the kids live together with an Adult Foster Care provider.
Whatever you do, try to get individual support hours from DDS to help your child work on skills and get into the community.
For those on a DDS waiver, ½ of costs are paid by Medicaid. Does your child go to Day Hab? That’s Medicaid, too.