When families in Hamilton County face a housing crisis, they call the Central Access Point (CAP) Helpline for assistance. Because of innovative partnerships with Ohio’s Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs), the CAP Helpline can now connect callers to healthcare support, case management, financial assistance, and transportation. At Strategies to End Homelessness, we believe that preventing and ending homelessness requires strong partnerships that connect people to the full range of resources available to them.
Connecting Housing and Healthcare
Housing status is one of the most important social determinants of health. People experiencing homelessness face significantly greater health challenges and barriers to care. At the same time, healthcare organizations increasingly recognize that stable housing is essential to improving health outcomes.
In 2023, the CAP Helpline formed partnerships with Ohio’s seven largest Medicaid managed care organizations. These partnerships allow CAP Helpline Intake Specialists to connect eligible callers directly to their health plan where additional support may be available. The Medicaid providers we are partnering with for this initiative are AmeriHealth Caritas, Anthem, Buckeye Health Plan, CareSource, Humana, Molina Healthcare, and United Healthcare.
Many MCOs offer services that address social determinants of health, including housing navigation assistance, care coordination, and, for qualifying households, rental assistance programs. By connecting them to their MCOs, the CAP Helpline helps callers access benefits they may not know are available.
The results demonstrate the need. In 2025, 74% of CAP Helpline callers reported having health insurance. Of those callers, 81% consented to sharing their information with their Medicaid managed care organization, resulting in 2,359 direct connections to MCO partners.
These partnerships continue to evolve. Staff meet regularly with MCO representatives, and recent enhancements to the screening process include targeted questions that help managed care organizations identify and prioritize the most vulnerable households for follow-up services.
Bridging Gaps
The collaboration grew out of a shared recognition that homelessness response systems and healthcare systems often serve the same people but operate separately. And there were gaps between the two systems.
By creating formal partnerships, data-sharing agreements, and referral pathways, the CAP Helpline and MCOs have worked to bridge those gaps. The goal is to ensure households receive every available resource rather than relying on just the local homeless services system to meet their needs.
For callers who may not qualify for immediate housing assistance through homeless services, a connection to their health plan can open doors to additional community resources. For MCOs, the partnership provides an opportunity to engage members during a housing crisis, when housing and shelter interventions can lead to positive health outcomes.Buckeye Health Plan recently acknowledged the importance of connecting members to critical housing supports and community resources. They had our staff member, Jamie Hummer, talk about the importance of coordination across systems in a recent LinkedIn post.
CareSource Funding Strengthens Community Resources
In addition to referral partnerships, managed care organizations have invested directly in homelessness prevention efforts.
Through a grant investment from CareSource, Strategies to End Homelessness partnered with two long-time community partners to expand existing services for families facing housing instability.
Half of the funding supports St. Vincent de Paul Society’s rental assistance efforts, increasing available resources for households struggling to remain housed.
The other half of the funding is being used for Project Connect to help Cincinnati Public Schools families sleeping in their vehicles access temporary hotel stays while working toward more stable housing solutions.
These investments strengthened existing programs that were already serving vulnerable households, allowing providers to respond to more families in crisis.
Early results have been encouraging. Reporting during the summer of 2026 shows that the projects served dozens of households and individuals, prevented more than 140 nights of unsheltered homelessness, and expanded the community’s capacity to provide critical assistance. Project Connect is now utilizing the regional Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) managed by Strategies to End Homelessness. This enables us to measure outcomes for families after leaving emergency hotel placements.
Stronger Partnerships, Better Outcomes
The CAP Helpline is often the first point of contact for individuals and families experiencing or at-risk of experiencing homelessness. Every call represents an opportunity to connect someone not only to shelter or homelessness prevention services, but also to healthcare resources that can support long-term stability.
Our partnerships with managed care organizations demonstrate what is possible when housing and healthcare systems can work together. By sharing information responsibly, coordinating services, and investing in proven community programs, these collaborations create additional pathways to stability for households facing homelessness.
With every innovative partnership we build, we are ensuring that every caller receives the most comprehensive support possible and proving that homelessness is not inevitable – it is solvable.