Revision 21-1; Effective March 1, 2021
The value of a home that is a person's or the person's spouse's principal place of residence is not a resource of the person or the spouse.
A home is a structure in which a person lives (including mobile homes, houseboats and motor homes), other buildings and all adjacent land.
Note: The words home and homestead can be used interchangeably in this section.
A home is a structure in which the person or the person's spouse lives. All land adjacent to the home includes any land separated by roads, rivers or streams. Land is adjacent as long as it is not separated by intervening property owned by another person. This means all the land associated with the home, whether or not there is a business operated in connection with the home or property.
Adjacent property is a part of the home even if there is more than one document of ownership (for example, separate deeds), the home was obtained at a different time from the rest of the land or the holdings are assessed and taxed separately.
Home property may be jointly owned, or ownership may be in the form of a life estate or interest in an intestate estate.
For property to be considered a home for Medicaid eligibility purposes, the person or spouse must consider the property to be their home and:
- have ownership interest in the property; and
- reside in the property while having ownership interest.