The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law

06/17/2026

🚨Minnesota disenrolled 61% of Medicaid providers that furnish services the federal government has labelled "high risk" for fraud - including doctors, clinics, and other care providers.

This move affected services like mental health rehabilitative services, peer recovery, and home and community-based services for people with disabilities. All of these are crucial for people with disabilities, whether mental or physical.

📞Call your representative and urge them to protect the rights of people with disabilities to access the services they need.

Senate: 202-224-3121
Congress: 202-225-3121

06/16/2026

Last July, the White House released an executive order that calls for the return of ‘maximally flexible’ civil commitment standards for homeless people, as well as the end of Housing First policies, which they claim ‘deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment.’

What is housing first, and why should we protect it?

06/12/2026

Excellent news!

Thank you, Attorney General Kris Kobach, for withdrawing Kansas from the Texas v. Kennedy lawsuit and for listening to the concerns of Kansans with disabilities and their families.

Twenty-two Kansas senior and disability organizations joined together to explain why this litigation poses a threat to disability rights and community inclusion. We appreciate the Attorney General's decision to hear those concerns and take action, and we encourage the remaining states involved in the litigation to follow Kansas' example.

Read the coalition letter here: https://tinyurl.com/4xmnv2c4

06/10/2026

Join us tomorrow for a timely webinar!

Housing First Webinar alert:💻 "Housing Without Restrictions: A Key to Avoiding Homelessness and Institutionalization"
🗓️ Thursday, June 11, 2026
⏰ 1 to 2 PM ET
📍 Zoom - Register today: https://brandeis.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CdyUDSNIQCGwAFjiL-1Zng #/registration

Join us and the Community Living Policy Center for our upcoming webinar, which will highlight the importance of Housing First for unhoused people with disabilities and the role it plays in advancing community living.

Housing First is an evidence-based approach that helps people with disabilities access affordable permanent housing and services individually tailored to a person's needs.

Housing is not conditioned on people demonstrating successful participation in services. This enables people to achieve the stability that they need in order to focus on and address their needs holistically, including mental health or substance use issues.

Panelists will provide a history of the evolution of Housing First policy, raise examples of how Housing First works, and explain why it matters now more than ever for disabled people and other populations disproportionately affected by homelessness.

Speakers 🎤
Sam Tsemberis, PhD
Jennifer Mathis
Marcy Thompson
Domonique Howell
Rachelle Ellison
Stacie Leap

Housing First Webinar alert:💻 "Housing Without Restrictions: A Key to Avoiding Homelessness and Institutionalization"

🗓️ Thursday, June 11, 2026
⏰ 1 to 2 PM ET
📍 Zoom - Register today: https://brandeis.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CdyUDSNIQCGwAFjiL-1Zng #/registration

Join us and the Community Living Policy Center for our upcoming webinar, which will highlight the importance of Housing First for unhoused people with disabilities and the role it plays in advancing community living.

Housing First is an evidence-based approach that helps people with disabilities access affordable permanent housing and services individually tailored to a person's needs. Housing is not conditioned on people demonstrating successful participation in services. This enables people to achieve the stability that they need in order to focus on and address their needs holistically, including mental health or substance use issues.

Panelists will provide a history of the evolution of Housing First policy, raise examples of how Housing First works, and explain why it matters now more than ever for disabled people and other populations disproportionately affected by homelessness.

Speakers 🎤
Sam Tsemberis, PhD
Jennifer Mathis
Marcy Thompson
Domonique Howell
Rachelle Ellison
Stacie Leap

National Alliance to End Homelessness
Liberty Resources Inc

06/09/2026

Last week, we joined the National Homelessness Law Center and advocates from across the country outside the Cicero Institute’s first-ever conference on homelessness to make one message clear: the solution to homelessness is housing.

06/08/2026

For years, the Fair Housing Act has been interpreted broadly to protect people with disabilities, including by recognizing assistance animals beyond the narrower ADA definition of service animals.

HUD’s new guidance narrows the definition of an assistance animal to more closely mirror the ADA definition of a service animal. It is not limited to dogs, but the animal still must be trained to perform a specific task.

If you are at risk of losing housing because of an assistance animal, seek help before you are forced out of your home.

Contact a fair housing organization, Protection & Advocacy agency, or independent living center. You can find your state Protection & Advocacy agency at NDRN.org.

You can also talk to your members of Congress, monitor what is happening, understand your rights, and know what resources are available.

06/04/2026

Mental health crisis care should not depend on your zip code!

CA legislators should reject Gov. Newsom's budget proposal and protect mobile crisis services as a state-wide mandatory MediCal benefit.

06/03/2026

People on Medicaid should not need a lawyer just to figure out what they should be doing to avoid losing their Medicaid coverage.

Jennifer Mathis, Deputy Director of the Bazelon Center, spoke with Disability Scoop about the Interim Final Rule issued by CMS this week, which sets standards for Medicaid work requirements and could cause many people with disabilities to lose health coverage.

As written, the rule appears to disregard Congress’ intent in last July’s reconciliation law by narrowing the categories of people who qualify as “medically frail” and are therefore exempt from work requirements.

“CMS seems to be prohibiting states from exempting people based on falling into one of those categories and instead requiring some kind of individualized analysis of whether each person’s condition substantially impairs them from meeting the community engagement requirement,” Jennifer said. “That is simply unworkable and will predictably result in disenrollment of people who Congress intended to keep their Medicaid coverage.”

Read the full article:

The Trump administration is unveiling long-awaited details about new, more stringent Medicaid eligibility rules and raising fresh concerns about implications for people with disabilities.

05/27/2026

We're proud and excited to share that our deputy director, Jennifer Mathis, will be a keynote speaker at the annual National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA) in September!

Follow this link for more info & tickets: https://www.simpletix.com/e/narpa-2026-annual-rights-conference-huntsv-tickets-266104

05/26/2026

CMS is withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid funds from California - including $1.1 billion for In-Home Supportive Services, which help nearly 900,000 older adults and people with disabilities avoid unnecessary institutionalization.

These services help people get out of bed, go to work, remain in their communities, and live in the most integrated setting, as the ADA requires.

California residents: call your representatives and urge them to protect Medicaid home- and community-based services.