16a. Program Overview
Background and Goals
The Consolidated Appropriations Act for federal fiscal year 2014 provides the authority to develop a housing-with-services demonstration for low-income elderly to test models that demonstrate the potential to delay or avoid the need for nursing home care. The Demonstration is expected to produce evidence about the impact of a housing with services model on:
- Aging in place
- Transitions to institutional care
- Housing stability, wellbeing, health outcomes and health care utilization associated with nursing home placement and high health care costs of HUD-assisted elderly residents
HUD and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) collaborated on several research initiatives to inform the design of this demonstration. Lessons from each have informed the resulting experimental research design that has three significant features: 1) the creation of separate groups of enrolled properties: treatment and control; 2) the use of a lottery, or a random assignment, to place eligible properties in these two groups; and 3) the requirement to uniformly implement the demonstration’s core components and ensure adherence to the study design.
For more information, go to the Support Services Demonstration Program page on HUD’s website.
Period of Performance
Support Services for Elderly Households Demonstration awards are for an initial three years of funding with two annual extensions, subject to the availability of funds.
Funding Authority
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (Public Law 113-76), approved January 17, 2014, provides authority for HUD to use residual receipts and other available funds for a demonstration program to test housing with services models for the elderly that demonstrate the potential to allow elderly persons to successfully age in place.