4.21.3 Assisting Families Experiencing Homelessness
ISSUE DATE: 10/2025
Helping families meet the requirements to maintain eligibility after the initial three-month period of expedited child care may include multiple communication strategies, assisting to obtain verifications and acting on alerts.
Communication with families
Mail may not be the best form of communication for some families experiencing homelessness. In addition to mailing notices and verification requests, consider whether another method of communication may be helpful for the family.
Other communication methods may include:
· Phone call· Email using a secure method· Communicating with other workers, such as financial workers or job counselors who may have more frequent communication with the family· Communicating with a person the family has provided a release of information for. Assisting with obtaining verifications
It may be more difficult to obtain verifications for some families experiencing homelessness.
Options to help families get verifications include:
· Use information that is known to the agency, such as verifications held by the MFIP worker or in your agency’s electronic documentation system. See Chapter 7.24 (Verification – State Systems).· Offer the client the opportunity to sign a release of information to allow your agency to request verification directly from the source. See Chapter 7 (Verification). · When proof is not available despite the efforts of you and the family, get a signed statement from the family attesting to the correctness of the information. This cannot be used for income. See Chapter 7 (Verification)· Refer the family to resources for obtaining verifications and maintaining communications, such as financial resources or programs to help obtain birth certificates, a PO Box or phone. Alerts
Alerts assist workers to process expedited child care cases and follow-up on missing information.
Alerts for expedited child care cases include:
· 5-day alert: Reminds workers to process applications within five days. · 30-day alert: Reminds workers to request verification if any required fields are coded as “No Verification”· 60-day alert: Reminds workers to request verification if any required fields are coded as “No Verification”· Action alert: Reminds workers that the end of the three-month period is approaching and to take action to approve eligibility or make the case Temporarily Ineligible. See Chapter 8.6 (Temporary Ineligibility).Legal Authority
Minnesota Statutes 142E.03, subd. 1
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