Federal grant to cut San Jose’s homeless housing costs

San Jose is looking to offset a sizable portion of its homeless shelter expenses through Medi-Cal reimbursements, but homeless service providers aren’t making full use of the opportunity. That’s about to change with help from a federal grant.

The San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to accept and match $1.3 million from the federal Providing Access and Transforming Health grant. The grant will provide assistance with data collection and billing to ensure homeless service providers working with the city become compliant with California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM), which will help San Jose get partially reimbursed for what it spends maintaining a handful of its homeless shelters. Mayor Matt Mahan was not present for the vote.