Emergency shelter
Call 211 early in the day — shelters fill fast and are not guaranteed. Getting on the coordinated-entry list today is the step that matters even when there is no bed tonight.
Rental assistance, a shelter bed, coordinated-entry intake
Emergency rental assistance and a first coordinated-entry assessment usually move in this window. Apply to everything you qualify for at once — they run in parallel.
Transitional housing, rapid re-housing, SSI
Transitional and rapid-re-housing programs and a benefits decision like SSI typically land here. A denial can be appealed — keep every date and reference number.
The Medicaid HCBS waiver waitlist
The waiver that funds most residential support often has a wait measured in years — and it does not move until you are on it. This is the single most important thing to start now, even years early. How the waitlist works.
A Mai Heaven home
We cannot give a date yet — it depends on licensure in your state. A referral joins the waiting list now, and we reach out the day a home opens nearby. What we can and can’t do.
Two things that speed all of it up
Get on every list you qualify for as early as you can — nothing moves until you are on it. And keep a record of every call, so a denial or a lost application does not cost you months.
What to say on each call · Find help by your situation · Help today, by state