HUD logo

Forty Department of Housing and Urban Development-assisted senior housing developments in seven states will split $15 million in grants as they test the ability of an enhanced supportive services model to help elderly residents age in place and stay out of emergency departments, hospitals and nursing homes.

HUD will cover the costs related to hiring full-time enhanced service coordinators and part-time wellness nurses to connect older adults with the supportive services they need to live independently. Funded through the department’s Supportive Services Demonstration for Elderly Households in HUD-Assisted Multifamily Housing, information generated through the three-year grants will be evaluated independently to determine the pilot project’s success.

The project’s launch was announced Jan. 13 during the final days of the administration of President Barack Obama. HUD had announced that it was seeking communities to participate in January 2016.

HUD and the Department of Health and Human Services designed the program after collaborating on several research initiatives. As a result, the demonstration will feature separate treatment and control groups so that the invention’s effects can be measured; the random assignment of enrolled properties into one of these two groups; and the requirement to uniformly implement the project’s core components and adhere to the study design.

Participating communities are located in California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey and South Carolina.