HUD funding delays erode this program serving older, low-income adults

San Diego company MJ Housing & Services has waited months for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to deliver grant funding for a program that serves older, low-income adults living in Section 202 affordable housing.

For another year, HUD has failed to deliver timely funding for service coordinators, workers who connect older adults with a slew of resources and services to aid independent living.

Because older adults rely so heavily on the program, MJ Housing & Services President Charles A. Brown knew he would do anything he could to avoid furloughing the company’s service coordinators, a step they’d taken two years ago during another HUD funding delay.

So after he sold his house this year, Brown loaned the company proceeds from the sale to cover payroll for the service coordinators.

His loan, which will be reimbursed once HUD funds arrive, amounts to about $150,000, he said.

“I know I’m going to be reimbursed once we get the funding, but those are the drastic measures that we have to take in order to keep our entire team in place because the service is definitely needed,” Brown said.

Grant recipients and advocacy organizations said HUD’s annual funding for the program has suffered from delays for at least five years, and each year, the wait has grown longer.

In a letter urging HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge to send the funding, the American Association of Service Coordinators (AASC) and LeadingAge said that housing providers in at least 10 states, including Mississippi and Ohio, have laid off service coordinators because of the funding delay.

“Not only does that completely throw off residents when they have to lose a service coordinator and get a new one who has to learn everything about them again,” said Melissa Harris, AASC’s director of government affairs. “But it’s really difficult to find qualified service coordinators, especially in the current workforce landscape.”

Advocates for older adults say residents with access to the program tend to stay in the building longer and have better health outcomes. The program helps residents age in place, receive public benefits, health care and avoid eviction.

“We have a lot of residents who have very little, if any, family involvement whatsoever,” said Patricia Gray, social service coordinator and quality assurance director for the K&D Group, a housing developer based in Willoughby, Ohio. “So their main go-to person is their service coordinator.”

Through Section 202, HUD provides low-income people who are 62 or older with low-cost housing and services for independent living. HUD funds service coordinator programs through grants to housing and service providers that are renewed each year. Last year’s funds didn’t arrive until September, and some worry this year’s payments could be delayed until October.

In response to an interview request, HUD asked us to send questions by email, which the agency didn’t answer.

In a statement, HUD said the agency supports the service coordinator program, adding: “We are working to get this funding out as quickly as possible, and also to reduce delays in service coordinator funding next year.”

The agency wouldn’t answer why the ongoing delays have taken place or when grant recipients can expect to receive their money.

AASC and LeadingAge have said HUD’s grant office is underfunded, and some properties have had trouble getting HUD’s budget approval for service coordinator programs.

As it is, less than half of Section 202 properties have service coordinators, and housing providers that do worry the program is slowly disappearing as programs must undergo layoffs, furloughs and postpone filling positions because of absent grant money.

“They’re really getting into some dire positions financially because HUD is so delayed on this funding,” Harris said, “And unfortunately, as this continues year after year, we start to see some properties just say, ‘Hey, having a service coordinator isn’t worth it for us anymore.’”

If MJ Housing doesn’t receive its grant money by Oct. 1, its service coordinators will have to undergo furloughs again, Brown said.

“This is not a sustainable model for us. We don’t have any more homes to sell so that we could cover payroll,” he said. “And at the end of the day, it’s literally the people who we serve who suffer.”

The K&D Group has been able to cover more than half a million dollars in expenses for its service coordinator program so far this year. But Kevin Hagen, the company’s vice president of senior housing, said: “It’s getting to a point where it’s almost overbearing and it gets almost impossible to continue.”

At the same time, he feels fortunate his company hasn’t had to undergo layoffs as others have.

“I understand most places aren’t as big as K&D is,” he said. “I don’t know how they can continue going like this, … and my big worry is that this program as a whole is going to start crumbling if this gets worse and worse, and right now, it looks like it might be.”

Deferred maintenance, high-interest loans keep service coordinator programs going

Service coordinators help residents address their basic needs. That includes help navigating benefits like Social Security, filling prescriptions and building financial and digital literacy skills. They organize events like on-site clinics and wellness programs and provide referrals to mental health care and substance use treatment.

They also help mediate issues that may come up between residents, their neighbors and property managers. And during the pandemic, they played a vital role in helping residents get covid vaccines.

“They pretty much do everything,” Gray said.

When residents are behind on rent, service coordinators help them avoid eviction by guiding them toward rental assistance and other resources to keep them in their home.

Brown said MJ Housing & Services estimates its service coordinators have helped properties save about $3.5 million in eviction expenses.

Juliana Bilowich, director of housing operations and policy for LeadingAge, said having access to a service coordinator is “the difference between accessing prescription medications and not accessing them. It’s the difference between getting signed up for a free meal service versus not.”

Bilowich and Harris said that when the positions become vacant, they can be difficult to fill.

“When you’re having the position funded through a grant that doesn’t come through and there’s a possibility of being laid off every year, you’re going to lose qualified workers, who are going to end up somewhere else and maybe not come back to the profession,” Harris said.

To keep the programs running, some housing providers are putting off maintenance or taking out high-interest loans. Some have shifted salary payments from other staff toward service coordinator positions.

“It puts the whole property under a lot of strain, so we’re not just talking about resident access to prescriptions, meals and wellness,” Bilowich said. “We’re also talking about the general viability of the country’s affordable housing stock.”

HUD requires service coordinators to receive 12 to 36 hours of training each year, but Gray said it’s difficult to find locally. Without HUD funding, Gray said her program can’t afford to send staff to an annual AASC conference that workers have relied on to complete their training.

“We’re struggling a lot with finding training that HUD will accept for the program without being able to go to a conference like that,” she said.

Bilowich said that the older adults served by these programs are a group that can easily be forgotten.

“This is a segment of our population that would be better supported if they had more money,” they said. “There’s no affordable assisted living option, so they stay in independent living for as long as they absolutely can. What that means is that they are just as deserving of the ability to age with dignity as everybody else, regardless of their socioeconomic status.”

Contact BigIfTrue.org editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Twitter.

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