The Bashaw Blog

St. Louis County in Minnesota has the one of the highest population of adult foster care homes in the entire state. The Minnesota Department of Human Services defines adult foster care, “Adult family foster care is a licensed, living arrangement that provides food, lodging, supervision, and household services. They may also provide personal care and medication assistance. Adult foster care providers may be licensed to serve up to four adults or five adults if all foster care residents are age 55 or older, have no serious or persistent mental illness nor any developmental disability.”

These same type of homes also provide services for adults who have suffered from a Traumatic Brain Injury. People who have a traumatic brain injury receive waiver ed services. What does the waiver services provide you may ask? Again from the Minnesota DHS website, “The Brain Injury Waiver provides funding for home and community-based services for children and adults who have an acquired a traumatic brain injury. BI Waiver services may be provided in a person’s own home, in his/her biological or adoptive family’s home, in a relative’s home (e.g. sibling, aunt, grandparent etc.), in a family foster care home, in a corporate foster care home, in a board and lodging facility or in an assisted living facility. If married, a person may receive BI Waiver services while living at home with his or her spouse.”

Again from the  Minnesota DHS website, “Costs for room and board are met with client income such as Social Security Income, Supplemental Security Income, or other supplemental income support such as Group Residential Housing (GRH). GRH is available to help recipients pay for room and board costs when living in a licensed or registered setting.

The cost of adult foster care services (provision of supervision, assistance with personal care and medication) may be met with client income such as Social Security Income, Supplemental Security Income, and through other state and federal programs. These state and federal programs allow people who would otherwise be unable to afford care to receive services if they meet the program eligibility requirements.

In order to be paid for services from a waiver, the provider must have a contract with a county agency and be enrolled as a health care provider with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. County human service agencies set the rates for services provided to individuals who need public funding to help pay for services. The amount of payment a provider receives to care for an individual varies based on the resident’s service needs.”

Here is what this means. A licensed company who provides services for adults with traumatic brain injuries or severe mental illnesses, charges the adults who live in these homes rent. The rent is paid for by the client with their own monthly Supplemental Security Income or if eligible Social Security checks. The client then is reimbursed a portion from the Group Residential Housing that comes from the county they live in. In this case St. Louis County. The company then also receives money based on the clients waiver to provide the client additional services such as supervision, assistance with personal cares, and medication administration. The adult foster care companies negotiate with counties as the Minnesota DHS website states “based on the resident’s service needs.” This monthly waiver check is quite a big sum of money.

Let’s break it down using some numbers. So if an adult foster care company has 4 clients living in the home, the 4 clients all pay around $500 dollars a month in rent, $2000 total. The company also receives the waiver check for all four clients.  I would guess a few tens of thousands of dollars a month for a licensed company to provide the services listed on the Minnesota DHS website. Thanks a pretty good chunk of change for just one month. And just think if a person has a bad history of violence or requires a lot of personal cares. That waiver check could be significantly bigger. Also, the residents in the adult foster care homes are typically not from St. Louis County because the waiver checks given out by Hennepin and Ramsey county are significantly bigger. An adult foster care company probably is getting around $40,000 a month if their home has 4 clients living in it. An adult foster care business can be quite lucrative if you can get yourself enough homes. No wonder why St. Louis County has so many adult foster care homes in it.

Please go onto the Minnesota DHS website through links I have provided. It is all right there. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent each month for the mentally ill to live in adult foster care.