An experimental program providing extra services to help keep once-homeless Marylanders in stable housing appears to be working — with participants not only staying under a roof but out of the hospital and healthier.

But more than 200 households in Baltimore could lose that support if funding pledged by hospitals comes to an end in June and no other funding source is secured.

“We think everyone sees something pretty clear in the relationship between where you live and your health care outcomes,” said Kevin Lindamood, president and CEO of Health Care for the Homeless, which is the service provider for the program in Baltimore. “The health consequences for homelessness are severe.”

The pilot, called Assistance in Community Integrative Services, or ACIS, serves “the poorest of the poor and the sickest of the sick,” Lindamood said. Those eligible to participate must be enrolled in Medicaid, experiencing homelessness, and have at least four hospital visits in a year or two or more chronic conditions. Caseworkers help participants get identification cards and bank accounts, find doctors, and access medications, among other supports that can help them stay housed and out of hospitals.

This story continues. Read the rest at The Baltimore Banner: A Baltimore program keeps people healthy and housed. Hospitals may stop funding it anyway.

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