General definitions and terms used in this subpart

Any 9-month period means any period of 9 full calendar months ending with any full calendar month throughout which (as defined in § 416.211) an individual is residing in a public emergency shelter for the homeless (as defined in this section) and including the immediately preceding 8 consecutive full calendar months. January 1988 is the earliest possible month in any 9-month period.

Educational or vocational training means a recognized program for the acquisition of knowledge or skills to prepare an individual for gainful employment. For purposes of these regulations, educational or vocational training does not include programs limited to the acquisition of basic life skills including but not limited to eating and dressing.

Emergency shelter means a shelter for individuals whose homelessness poses a threat to their lives or health.

Homeless individual is one who is not in the custody of any public institution and has no currently usable place to live. By custody we mean the care and control of an individual in a mandatory residency where the individual's freedom to come and go as he or she chooses is restricted. An individual in a public institution awaiting discharge and placement in the community is in the custody of that institution until discharged and is not homeless for purposes of this provision.

Institution means an establishment that makes available some treatment or services in addition to food and shelter to four or more persons who are not related to the proprietor.

Medical treatment facility means an institution or that part of an institution that is licensed or otherwise approved by a Federal, State, or local government to provide inpatient medical care and services.

Public emergency shelter for the homeless means a public institution or that part of a public institution used as an emergency shelter by the Federal government, a State, or a political subdivision of a State, primarily for making available on a temporary basis a place to sleep, food, and some services or treatment to homeless individuals. A medical treatment facility (as defined in § 416.201) or any holding facility, detoxification center, foster care facility, or the like that has custody of the individual is not a public emergency shelter for the homeless. Similarly, transitional living arrangements such as a halfway house that are part of an institution's plan to facilitate the individual's adjustment to community living are not public emergency shelters for the homeless.

Public institution means an institution that is operated by or controlled by the Federal government, a State, or a political subdivision of a State such as a city or county. The term public institution does not include a publicly operated community residence which serves 16 or fewer residents.

Resident of a public institution means a person who can receive substantially all of his or her food and shelter while living in a public institution. The person need not be receiving treatment and services available in the institution and is a resident regardless of whether the resident or anyone else pays for all food, shelter, and other services in the institution. A person is not a resident of a public institution if he or she is living in a public educational institution for the primary purpose of receiving educational or vocational training as defined in this section. A resident of a public institution means the same thing as an inmate of a public institution as used in section 1611(e)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act. (See § 416.211(b), (c), and (d) of this subpart for exceptions to the general limitation on the eligibility for Supplemental Security Income benefits of individuals who are residents of a public institution.)

SSI means supplemental security income.

State assistance means payments made by a State to an aged, blind, or disabled person under a State plan approved under title I, X, XIV, or XVI (AABD) of the Social Security Act which was in effect before the SSI Program.

We or Us means the Social Security Administration.

You or Your means the person who applies for or receives SSI benefits or the person for whom an application is filed.