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Arson attacks paralyze French high-speed rail network hours before start of Olympics, the Obamas endorse Harris for President; A NY county creates facial recognition, privacy protections; Art breathes new life into pollution-ravaged MI community; 34 Years of the ADA.

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Harris meets with Israeli PM Netanyahu and calls for a ceasefire. MI Rep. Rashida Tlaib faces backlash for a protest during Netanyahu's speech. And VA Sen. Mark Warner advocates for student debt relief.

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There's a gap between how rural and urban folks feel about the economy, Colorado's 'Rural is Rad' aims to connect outdoor businesses, more than a dozen of Maine's infrastructure sites face repeated flooding, and chocolate chip cookies rock August.

Housing, health care meet in innovative WA program

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Tuesday, October 31, 2023   

Having a home is critical to a person's health. Medicaid dollars in Washington state are helping bridge the gap between health care and housing.

Apple Health, Washington's Medicaid program, has an initiative called Apple Health And Homes. It's among the first in the nation to provide funds to help certain people on Medicaid find and secure housing.

Matt Christie, a supervisor with the Health Care Authority's Foundational Community Supports program, explained the state is shifting the landscape on how to pay for housing support services.

"The innovative thing that our program did was bring Medicaid into the space of paying for support services as part of someone's health insurance," he said.

Apple Health and Homes is for people who qualify for the Foundational Community Supports program, including folks who are chronically homeless, have behavioral health needs or suffer from substance abuse disorder.

Foundational Community Supports has served more than 35,000 people since 2018, Christie said, and added there are a variety of reasons why health is closely linked to housing.

"If you require medication that needs specific storage, how do you maintain appointments, and even just on a really fundamental level, if you don't have a place to sleep at night, just kind of the impact that has on your physical and mental health over time," he continued.

Scott Tankersley, a program administrator with Foundational Community Supports, said Apple Health and Homes is about more than just finding someone housing, and added his organization follows evidence-based practices from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, ensuring that people find the right community for them.

"That's really critical to Apple Health and Homes and how we pair folks with housing of their choice - to walk forward and build a path to housing stability that's according to someone's choice and preference," he said.


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