Yes, you can be on welfare and own a house. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) all generally exclude your primary residence when they measure your resources, so a home you live in won’t disqualify you no matter what it’s worth. The catches sit at the edges: Medicaid long-term care applies an equity cap, rental income from a boarder reduces your check, sale proceeds have a short reinvestment window, and Medicaid can come after your home’s value once you die.
How Each Program Treats Your Home
The programs land in the same place through slightly different rules. Here’s what applies to yours.
SNAP
SNAP explicitly excludes your home and the surrounding property from countable resources, even if the house is worth far more than the program’s resource limits.1eCFR. 7 CFR 273.8 – Resource Eligibility Standards The exclusion continues if you temporarily leave for work, job training, illness, or because a natural disaster made the home uninhabitable, as long as you intend to return.
For households that face a resource test at all, the general limit is $3,000 in countable assets like cash and bank accounts, rising to $4,500 if anyone in the household is 60 or older or has a disability.2Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Eligibility In practice, 46 states have adopted broad-based categorical eligibility, which either eliminates the asset test entirely or raises it well above the federal floor.3Food and Nutrition Service. Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE)
SSI
SSI excludes your home from its resource calculation regardless of value, as long as the property is your principal place of residence.4Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 416.1212 – Exclusion of the Home The exclusion covers the shelter itself, the land under it, and related outbuildings. Everything else is tested tightly: the 2026 resource limit is $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple.5Social Security Administration. 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet So a $400,000 home is fine, but $2,500 in a savings account is not.
Medicaid
Medicaid also excludes your home when it’s your principal place of residence. The exclusion applies whether you, your spouse, or certain close relatives live there.6U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). Medicaid Treatment of the Home: Determining Eligibility and Repayment for Long-Term Care Long-term care Medicaid works differently, and that’s covered below.
TANF
TANF varies by state. Asset limits run from $1,000 to $15,000, and at least nine states have eliminated them altogether. Most states exempt the primary residence from whatever test they apply, but the specifics differ. Check with your state’s human services agency for the rule that applies where you live.
The Medicaid Long-Term Care Equity Cap
If you need Medicaid to pay for nursing home care or home and community-based services, home equity above a set threshold makes you ineligible.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets The statutory range adjusts annually with inflation. For 2026, the floor is $752,000 and the ceiling is $1,130,000, and each state picks its limit somewhere in that band.8Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). 2026 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards Most states use the lower figure.
The cap measures equity, not market value. A home worth $900,000 with a $300,000 mortgage balance carries $600,000 in equity, which falls under even the minimum threshold. The equity limit is waived entirely if your spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child of any age lives in the home. That waiver is federal, so it applies in every state.
What Happens If You Move to a Nursing Home
Entering a nursing home or rehab facility doesn’t automatically turn your house into a countable resource. For SSI, the home stays excluded as long as your spouse or a dependent relative continues living there, regardless of whether you plan to return.4Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 416.1212 – Exclusion of the Home If no household member remains, the exclusion depends on your intent to return.
Medicaid handles the “intent to return” question differently across states. Some accept your stated intent at face value. Others ask for a physician’s assessment of whether discharge is realistic. Once a property no longer qualifies as your home under state rules, its equity becomes a countable resource.6U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). Medicaid Treatment of the Home: Determining Eligibility and Repayment for Long-Term Care
Selling Your Home While on Benefits
Selling creates a timing problem. The proceeds are cash, and cash counts. For SSI, you have three months from the date you receive sale proceeds to reinvest them in a new home; if you do, the money stays excluded the whole time.4Social Security Administration. Code of Federal Regulations 416.1212 – Exclusion of the Home If the buyer pays through a promissory note or installment contract, the three-month clock restarts for each payment and each one must be reinvested within its own window.
Miss the deadline, and whatever you didn’t reinvest becomes a countable resource on the first day of the following month. Against SSI’s $2,000 limit, even a small amount of uninvested proceeds pushes you over. Line up replacement housing before closing so you can move the funds quickly. SNAP and Medicaid apply their own reinvestment rules, which vary by state, but the same logic holds: proceeds sitting in a bank account will eventually be counted.
Renting Out a Room
Taking in a boarder won’t cost you the home exclusion, but the rent affects your benefit amount. For SSI, rental payments generally count as unearned income and reduce your monthly payment. The 2026 federal SSI benefit rate for an individual is $994, and unearned income above a small exclusion reduces that dollar for dollar.9Social Security Administration. SSI Federal Payment Amounts for 2026
Watch for in-kind support and maintenance as well. If a housemate pays part of your mortgage or utilities directly rather than handing you rent, SSI may treat that as a form of income that reduces your benefit. The maximum reduction is capped at one-third of the federal benefit rate plus $20, which works out to $351.33 per month in 2026. As of September 30, 2024, food is no longer counted in this calculation, so only shelter-related contributions trigger a reduction.10Federal Register. Omitting Food From In-Kind Support and Maintenance Calculations For SNAP, rental income counts toward gross income and should be reported at your regular certification reviews.
Medicaid Estate Recovery
Federal law requires every state to seek reimbursement from the estates of deceased Medicaid beneficiaries who were 55 or older when they received certain benefits, primarily nursing home care and home and community-based services.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets The home is usually the largest asset in the estate, which makes it the main target.
States cannot pursue recovery while you’re alive. Federal law also requires states to defer recovery entirely if certain relatives survive you:
- A surviving spouse, regardless of where the spouse lives.
- A child under 21, regardless of the child’s living situation.
- A blind or disabled child, at any age.
These deferrals are usually temporary. Once the qualifying relative no longer meets the criteria, the state can resume its claim. States must also offer a hardship waiver, but federal law doesn’t define hardship, so the standards vary widely. Recovery is limited to what Medicaid actually spent on your care, not the full value of the home. For someone who received years of nursing facility care, that number can easily exceed what the house is worth.
Reporting Changes and Appealing a Denial
Every program requires you to report changes in your assets, income, and living situation. For homeowners that includes selling the house, refinancing, taking in a boarder, or inheriting property. SNAP recertifies at intervals ranging from six months to three years depending on the household, and SSI conducts periodic redeterminations, but major changes are supposed to be reported promptly. Keep copies of everything you submit. Concealing property or hiding rental income is welfare fraud and carries penalties that scale with the amount involved, from repayment demands to felony charges.
If your application is denied or your benefits are reduced because of your home or other assets, you can challenge the decision. For SNAP, request a hearing within 90 days of the agency action.11eCFR. 7 CFR 273.15 – Fair Hearings For SSI, request reconsideration within 60 days of the decision; if that goes against you, request a hearing before an administrative law judge.12Social Security Administration. Request Reconsideration Common issues worth appealing include a caseworker treating your home as a resource, miscalculating your equity, or failing to apply the primary residence exclusion. Legal aid organizations in most areas represent people at benefit hearings for free.