Homeless Households

[63-102(h)(2)]

General Definition

“Homeless individual” means an individual who lacks a fixed and regular nighttime residence or an individual whose primary nighttime residence is:

A supervised shelter designed to provide temporary accommodations such as:
- A congregate shelter (like the armory when it is opened up to the homeless for winter nights), or
- A welfare hotel where an individual is referred by the Social Services Agency (Persons staying on their own at an ordinary motel such as a Motel 6 or Best Western are also considered homeless when it is not a permanent arrangement.)
A halfway house or similar institution that provides temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized.
A place not designed for, or ordinarily used, as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings (e.g., a hallway, a bus station, a lobby or similar places).
A temporary accommodation in the residence of another individual. Refer to Limitations following.

Limitations [63-102(h)(2)(C)]

The homeless regulations provide a time limit of 90 days in which an individual may be considered homeless, when the individual’s nighttime residence is a temporary accommodation in the residence of another individual. The following rules apply:

Once the individual has resided at the same address for 90 days, he/she is no longer considered homeless.
Change in other persons residing in the residence does not affect the client’s 90 day time limit.
The 90 day time limit applies for each incident of homelessness. If an individual moves into another residence before the 90 days is up and declares it is a temporary accommodation, a new 90 day time period begins.
“Residence” includes the entire property (i.e. sleeping in the backyard in a tent, sleeping in a mobile home in the driveway, staying in the cottage behind the main house, etc.)
- Note: If an individual is only using the address as a mailing address but does not physically reside there, then these limitations do NOT apply.
EWs must set an Alert on the case for the month in which the 90-day time period ends in order to reevaluate the client’s status at that time. If the individual is still residing at the same residence after the 90 day period has ended, the household is no longer considered homeless. The EW must reevaluate the household’s status and remove the homeless indicator if appropriate.

Verification

Residence

Homeless households may be unable to obtain residence verification. These households may be certified and/or recertified without verification of residence IF:

The applicant, with the EW's assistance, has made a reasonable attempt to obtain verification and has been unable to do so.
The applicant's statement regarding residency is not questionable.

Other

Homeless households remain subject to all CalFresh verification requirements, except as described above under Residence.

Certification Period

Homeless households are SAR, and may generally be certified for a six to 12 month period. Whenever possible, the longest possible certification period (12 months) should be assigned.

However, a homeless household:

Whose circumstances are unpredictable (for example, moving to a new address each week, or living in a car), and
Which does not submit a quarterly cash aid income report to Social Services may be judged to have unpredictable circumstances, and may therefore be certified for only one or two months. The assessment of unpredictable circumstances is a judgment call made by the EW, and must be documented in the case record.

Refer to Certification Periods for further information on this subject.

Budget And Reporting Requirements

Regulation [63-505.2, 63-503.1]

Households in which all individuals are homeless are subject to SAR. The household must be informed of the SAR reporting responsibility and submit a SAR 7 Eligibility Status Report.

After the household finds permanent housing or is no longer considered homeless, the household:

CalWORKs Reporting Households [63-504.43, 63-300.51]

Information reported on the CalWORKs QR 7 will be used to determine eligibility and benefits for a change reporting CalFresh household.

If the household requests a hearing and cash benefits are continued pending the hearing, continue the CalFresh benefits at the previous level.

If a change has NOT been reported timely, the information will be acted upon, providing there is time for a ten-day NOA. If an overissuance results because the change was reported late, an overissuance claim must be established.

Averaged Income

Whenever a full month's income is anticipated but is received on a weekly or biweekly basis and the exact amount is not known convert the income to a monthly amount by multiplying:

Weekly amounts by 4.33 and
Biweekly amounts by 2.167.