On May 6, United Way of King County convened individuals from about 30 organizations to discuss the implications of GAU reform, now known as “Disability Lifeline”, for homelessness in King County.  Robin Zukoski from Columbia Legal Services did an excellent job of describing the major components of the reform bill as passed by the legislature while local Department of Social and Health Services representatives spoke briefly on how they were planning to implement these changes.

Overall, the bill hopes to achieve cost savings by moving more people off state-funded Disability Lifeline through a number of mechanisms, some positive for the client and others not so positive. The early application process for federal Social Security Disability income will expedite the move for new applicants with more permanent disabilities to a more stable and robust funding source.  However, for those that may not qualify immediately for SSI, trouble may be lurking ahead. Although the reform measures continue to allow the newly disabled to receive state support, the legislature is attempting to save dollars on the back end by limiting benefits to 24 months in 5 years; the time limit will apply retroactively.  Because of that two-year cap, roughly 5,000 people statewide will hit the maximum time limit in September 2010. Those that are not eligible for SSI may lose their medical coverage and cash grant, which is often their sole source of income.

Agencies dealing with homeless populations are just beginning to wrap their heads around the implication of this for King County, which could easily have an additional 1,000 people thrown into homelessness as of September due to the time limit on eligibility. Another way that the GAU ranks will be decreased is that recipients with chemical dependency issues that co-occur with their incapacity will be evaluated and required to get treatment in order to receive benefits.  If they refuse, the recipient looses all benefits. This is seen by many as a conflict with the successful Housing First model.  Housing provider’s expressed a concern about the potential loss of rent from the absence of a cash grant; many non-profit housing providers’ depend upon this small amount of money to help pay operational costs.

On the positive side, if a person is participating in treatment and reaches the end of their 24 months, the person can complete their treatment without losing benefits.  In addition, if a Medicaid waiver is successfully negotiated, people who have lost or will loose their benefits due to the time limit could receive medical coverage through Medicaid.

The least defined and most mysterious part of the new law is the housing voucher program.  The Housing voucher program would be reserved for all new applicants who are homeless, chemically dependent and/or mentally ill and would replace the $339 monthly cash grant GAU recipients used to receive.  The voucher program would be run by the Department of Commerce and apply only in regions where the Department certifies that affordable housing is available. The great news is that there are over $20 million new dollars in GAU including new dollars for managed care and drug treatment.

Another victory-The Governor proposed new regulations this past session that would have redefined disability and reduced the cash grant amount thereby limiting access to GAU.  These regulations have formally been withdrawn and cannot be reintroduced until at least the fall.