Understanding Supplemental Security Income
SSI Spotlight on Homelessness
2012 Edition

If you are homeless, you have the same rights and privileges in applying for benefits as someone who is not homeless.

If you are homeless, some of the ways you can receive your SSI benefits. You may:

	have your benefits deposited directly into your personal bank account;
	have your benefits mailed to a third party;
	have a relative or other third party be assigned as your representative payeerepresentative payee;
	have your benefits directed to a Direct Express debit bank card.

Yes. Living in a shelter, medical treatment facility, or a correctional facility may affect your SSI benefits. Living in a public institution may make you ineligible for benefits.

However, some safe haven facilities provide very low cost supportive housing to homeless persons who are unwilling or unable to participate in mental health treatment programs or to receive other supportive services.  A person living in a safe haven will not have his or her SSI payments reduced for the support and maintenance provided by the safe haven.  Also, some publicly operated community residences are not considered public institutions for SSI purposes.

For further information about institutionalization, please refer to the Spotlights on Living Arrangements , Continued Benefits for Persons who are Temporarily Institutionalized, and Prerelease Procedure . Also see information on the Representative Payment Program.

In addition, the Social Security Administration is an active participant in the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH).  The mission of the USICH is to “coordinate the Federal response to homelessness and to create a national partnership at every level of government and with the private sector to reduce and end homelessness in the nation while maximizing the effectiveness of the Federal Government in contributing to the end of homelessness.”  For more information, please visit Social Security's Homelessness web site at www.socialsecurity.gov/homelessness .