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Housing Toolkit:

2

The basics

Roles and responsibilities

Your role is to support people with disabilities in making informed decisions about their housing goals. This includes helping people prepare for, find and maintain housing.

Here, read an overview of other roles to better understand what you can expect from each member of the team as you build a housing plan. Housing Benefits 101 offers a comprehensive chart to learn about the different professionals that help people navigate housing. 

The person you support should drive the housing plan.

The person communicates interests, chooses supports, invites people into the support team and actively engages in the housing search process. The person may rely on other team members to help understand services, processes, options, and many parts of exploring, pursuing and maintaining housing — but the person remains the decision maker. If the person is a minor or under guardianship, the family or guardian must also be involved in these decisions.

To fulfill this role, the person is responsible for:

  • Sharing interest in housing
  • Engaging in housing planning and conversations
  • Making informed choices (using HB101's Housing Needs and Wants path)
  • Approving and agreeing to the housing plan
  • Choosing which services and housing supports to receive and from whom (using HB101's My Day, My Life path)
  • Developing or leading the budget planning process (using HB101's Housing Budget path)
  • Participating in services and taking actions needed to fulfill the housing plan
  • Communicating with team members throughout the housing journey

The family, guardian or other support person is critical for housing success. 

The person is the decision maker, but the person may rely on their family, guardian or other support person in the decision-making process. If the person is a minor or under guardianship, the family or guardian must be involved in these decisions and provide the required approval. The person's family, guardian or other support person can participate in planning meetings and conversations about housing, as well as help the person explore opportunities, identify and choose service options, and determine who they would like as part of their team.

To fulfill this role, the family, guardian or other support person is responsible for:

  • Supporting the person in their decisions
  • Helping the person communicate any questions or concerns about housing to the team
  • Assisting the person in having experiences, learning, trying new things, understanding options (such as which services they receive and who is on their team), communicating interests and making decisions
  • Participating in planning meetings, if requested by the person seeking housing (for adults not under guardianship)
  • Participating in planning meetings and providing approvals and signatures for planned services (for minor youth or adults under guardianship)
  • Making sure the person's other activities, services and supports "wrap around" their housing efforts

The waiver case manager helps people identify, access and navigate needed supports and services.

This includes social, health, educational, housing and financial services. The waiver case manager provides the person with the information needed to make informed choices. The wavier case manager assesses the person's needs, creates service plans, offers referrals to appropriate services and monitors service delivery.

People who don't have a waiver case manager might have others who support them.

In the context of housing, the waiver case manager is responsible for:

  • Asking the person about housing, communicating housing options and supporting informed choices about housing
  • Finding housing services that can help a person on their housing path and authorizing any waiver services or referring to other sources of services
  • Organizing team meetings to discuss progress toward a person's housing goals
  • Ensuring other services (such as employment services) are coordinated with a person's housing goals
  • Participating in or providing information for planning meetings, IEP meetings or other housing-related meetings

To learn more about the responsibilities of a waiver case manager, consider online training opportunities from the Minnesota Department of Human Services. 

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