This page provides information about:

Supporting a person’s move

If a person expresses a desire to move or wants more information about options or processes before deciding to move, the certified assessor, case manager or care coordinator must:

Housing Benefits 101 (HB101) is a DHS-supported online resource designed to help people with disabilities make informed choices about where and how they want to live. It also supports lead agencies and other professionals in engaging people throughout the housing planning and transition processes.

HB101 helps people:

In addition to comprehensive housing education, HB101 provides in-depth information on:

HB101 Vault offers secure, personalized and interactive tools that support informed housing decision-making. HB101 Places helps people find authorized Housing Support (Group Residential Housing [GRH]) providers who have housing vacancies (site-based providers) or offer needed services (scattered-site providers).

Disability Hub MN uses HB101 as a core resource within its options-counseling process.

HB101 Vault offers quick and easy activities that help people answer key questions when developing a housing plan.

Lead agencies and other professionals can use the Vault as a tool to develop a housing plan when working with people. It offers opportunities to securely view and save important documents.

HB101 Paths

A path is a set of tools used to explore what each person might need to be successful to find, maintain and thrive in their own home. HB101 Vault offers the following paths.

How do I get started?

Use this path with a person to get started on a housing plan:

1. I get to decide: Helps a person understand their rights about housing decisions.

2. My housing ideas: Helps a person consider where they want to live now and goals for the future.

3. Build a housing team: Creates a directory of people who can help with housing planning and includes contact information and a description of roles and duties.

Does the money add up?

Use this path when determining what a person can afford:

1. Get a benefits look-up: Allows a person to request a report of benefit information from DHS to make informed decisions.

2. Options for paying for your own place: Compares budget options for paying for independent housing by offering a visual representation of what a person can afford. It allows a person to see how their budget would change with a roommate or by working.

3. My full budget: Provides an in-depth look at all the expenses a person typically has when living in their own apartment or home and produces a results section with indicators of a person’s financial health. It offers tips and resources if a person’s expenses are too high.

How can I make a good impression?

Use this path for a person who might have barriers to find housing, such as criminal history, unlawful detainers, low/no credit or trouble making a good first impression:

1. My history: Provides resources if a person has a criminal record, rental history problems or credit problems.

2. Presenting myself: Helps prepare a person who has historical barriers to housing (e.g., criminal record, poor rental history, poor credit) to talk about these issues while focusing on the positives and the steps the person has taken to address the issues.

What do I want in a new place?

Use this path with a person who is beginning the process of thinking about and/or looking for a new place to live:

1. Needs and wants: Helps a person identify wanted and needed features of where they want to live. This covers topics such as location, transportation, housing features, etc.

2. Accessibility needs and wants: Helps a person find a place that is accessible and easy for them to approach, enter and use. It provides information about environmental accessibility adaptation (EAA) home modifications or accessibility equipment to navigate the inside or outside of a person’s home.

3. Service needs and wants: Helps start a dialogue about what level of supports, both formal and informal, a person may need.

What help do I need?

Use this path for a person who needs to identify formal and informal supports to have a successful day:

1. My regular day: Helps a person list the things they are responsible for when living in their own place and identifies how much help they need and specific individuals or agencies that provide help.

2. Make life fun: Lists fun things a person enjoys at home, in their neighborhood, around their area and far away.

3. What if: Creates a plan for what to do when difficult situations come up when a person lives on their own. It identifies a specific individual or agency who can help in certain situations and offers a printable version of this plan to post in a place where a person can find it easily.

How can sharing a place work for me?

Use this path to help a person explore the benefits of living with someone:

1. Does a roommate make sense: Helps a person explore whether having a roommate might be helpful.

2. Roommate profile: Helps a person make a profile of who they are and what they want in a roommate.

3. Roommate agreement: Helps a person make an agreement with their roommate(s) about the responsibilities and rules in their place.

How do I keep my place?

Use this path to help a person make a plan of action with steps to help them keep their housing. It includes activities that are in other paths, plus an addition of a “Housing Success Plan.”

Can a letter help solve my housing problem?

Use this path to help a person decide if writing a letter might help them with their housing problem, including being denied housing or facing an eviction. This path includes a triage tool to help a person decide what type of letter might help them, and then it helps them write one of the following letters:

Additional resources in the Vault

Anyone with a Vault account has access to the following resources.

Files

The files resource allows a person to:

Contacts

The contacts resource allows a person to:

Shares

The shares resource displays a history of the files a person has shared and with whom they have shared those files.

HB101 Places helps providers and people find authorized Housing Support (GRH) providers who either:

It includes the following settings throughout Minnesota:

Entries in HB101 Places are voluntarily submitted by providers and verified by DHS as holding a current Housing Support agreement with a lead agency.

Posting to HB101 Places

Housing Support providers from anywhere in Minnesota are eligible to post information and vacancies in HB101 Places if they are in a category listed above.

To learn more about posting information, providers should email hb101.places.dhs@state.mn.us.

Note:

Bridges Rental Assistance

Bridges Rental Assistance helps people and families that include at least one adult with a serious mental illness pay for privately owned rental housing. This help continues until the person/family becomes eligible for another housing program (e.g., Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers), or until the person/family moves into another type of housing.

Family Unification Program (FUP)

Section 8 FUP helps two different populations:

The program is funded by the federal government and administered by local public housing authorities. If a family or young adult qualifies, they will receive help paying for rent in any privately owned housing that will accept FUP as payment.

Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)

HOPWA is a resource for people with low income who are HIV-positive or living with a family member who is HIV-positive. The person and family might be able to get help from HOPWA through:

HOPWA helps in different ways, depending on the person’s needs and the local agency running the HOPWA program in the person’s area.

HB101

HB101 – Ways to pay for rent and housing includes charts that list many programs that can help pay for housing.

Section 811 Project-Based Rental Assistance program for Supportive Housing (PRA)

HUD Section 811 PRA expands the supply of supportive housing units to help people with disabilities live, learn, work and enjoy life in the most integrated setting possible.

Minnesota Housing Support

Housing Support (formerly known as GRH) is a state-funded income supplement that pays up to a certain amount per month for housing and food costs.

Minnesota Supplemental Aid (MSA) Housing Assistance

MSA Housing Assistance helps people with disabilities who pay more than 40% of their income toward housing costs so they can have a choice about where they live.

Tribal housing

HB101 – Tribal housing is a resource available to American Indians. There are multiple types of housing benefits (e.g., help with rent or home loans, low-cost housing projects, Section 184 Indian Home Loans). Some types of help might be available to a member of any tribal nation (i.e., not just a member of a tribal nation located in Minnesota).

This resource provides contact information for the 11 tribal nations in Minnesota. Contact the tribal nation directly for information about what programs are available to a person.

Rural housing

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Rural Development provides loans, grants and rent help to make rural housing affordable and safe. A person may qualify for:

For a list of qualifying rural locations, refer to USDA – Income and property eligibility.

For additional information, refer to HB101 – Rural housing.

Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) Vouchers

Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) Voucher program is for homeless veterans. It pairs Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance with case management and supportive services. A housing authority provides the rental assistance, and the local VA offers supportive services.

HB101 Places

HB101 Places helps people find housing vacancies in programs where services may be available. For additional information, refer to the section above about HB101 Places.

HousingLink search engine

HousingLink search engine helps people find affordable housing. This tool allows a person to filter options based on location, size and type, but more importantly, it allows a person to filter by type of subsidy, accessibility and rent.

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) affordable apartment search engine

HUD affordable apartment search engine is a tool built by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It allows a person to filter subsidized housing by location, type of apartment and number of bedrooms. It provides a list of contact information so a person can email or call the property manager.

HUD homeless programs

HUD homeless programs offer support to people of any age and families. This includes people who:

Contact the appropriate local resources to access these programs (refer to HB101 – Homeless services in Minnesota).

Minnesota Aging & Disability Resources

Minnesota Aging & Disability Resources – Find housing is a tool that helps people search for housing with a variety of filters to narrow results based on location, services and more.

Moving Home Minnesota (MHM)

MHM is a federal demonstration project with the goal to establish services for people on Minnesota’s Medical Assistance (MA) program to move from qualified institutions to their own home in the community. MHM promotes the development and implementation of transition plans that reflect the preferences of people receiving services and the opportunity to receive services in the most integrated setting.

Relocation service coordination – targeted case management (RSC-TCM)

RSC-TCM includes activities coordinated and designed to help a person who lives in an eligible institution gain access to needed medical, social, educational, financial, housing and other services and supports that are necessary to move from an eligible institution to the community.

Transitional services

Transitional services (BI, CAC, CADI and DD) and transitional services (Alternative Care [AC] and Elderly Waiver [EW]) are waiver/AC services that provide items and expenses necessary and reasonable for a person to transition from an eligible setting to their own home.

The Arc Minnesota – Housing services
DHS – Case manager and care coordinator toolkit
Disability Hub MN – Housing toolkit
Disability Hub MN – Informed choice toolkit
Minnesota Commerce Department – Energy Assistance Program (EAP) (help to pay for home heating costs and furnace repairs)
HB101 – More project-based housing for seniors and people with disabilities
HousingLink – Legal help for renters
HousingLink – Project-based Section 8 housing
HousingLink – Section 42 Tax Credit Program
HUD – Housing choice vouchers fact sheet
HUD – Project-based vouchers
HUD – Public housing
HUD – Public housing agency contact information
MHM Program Manual – Comparison of MHM and RSC-TCM
Minnesota Housing Finance Agency
TrainLink – Self-paced online course: Supporting My Move: A Case Manager’s Role