Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: yes, through Elderly and Persons with Physical Disabilities (EPD) Waiver: 1915(c) waiver. Medicaid does not pay the facility’s room and board either way; only the care and service component.
What District of Columbia covers
| Waiver / state plan option | Elderly and Persons with Physical Disabilities (EPD) Waiver: 1915(c) waiver |
|---|---|
| Covers an assisted living setting? | Yes: “Assisted living consists of a licensed home in which participants can live in and have access to and receive all of the services that they need in order to maintain as much independence as possible. The person’s choice for independence must be balanced against the safety of the resident and other persons. This service does not cover room and board expenses.” |
| Room and board | Never covered by Medicaid, in District of Columbia or any state; see below. |
The room-and-board split
Federal law is the floor every state builds on: “The Secretary may by waiver provide that a State plan approved under this subchapter may include as “medical assistance” under such plan payment for part or all of the cost of home or community-based services (other than room and board) approved by the Secretary” (42 U.S.C. §1396n(c)(1), Social Security Act §1915(c)). The words in parentheses do the work: whatever a state’s waiver pays for inside an assisted living community, it is not the rent, the meals, or the room itself. That portion stays the resident’s own to fund, out of income, savings, or a family contribution; the waiver only ever reaches the care and service layer on top of it. District of Columbia’s own materials say the same thing directly: “This service does not cover room and board expenses.” (DC DHCF, EPD Waiver Participant Handbook, “Assisted Living” section).
The waitlist
At capacity / waitlisted : “The EPD Waiver Program is filled to its capacity and DHCF has established a waiting list.”
What you get to keep: the personal needs allowance
Not published in the materials reviewed this session. This is the amount of a waiver participant’s own income the state lets them keep for personal spending after the rest goes toward the cost of their care; it varies by state because each state sets its own figure inside the federal floor.
What this doesn’t answer
The coverage verdict, the room-and-board exclusion, and the waitlist status are all directly quoted from DHCF’s own EPD Waiver Participant Handbook. The handbook has no clear publication or revision date visible in the sections read, and it references 2012-era SSI income figures, so the waitlist statement could be dated even though it is the most current primary text available this session: treat the waitlist statement’s as-of date as unknown rather than current. No PNA dollar amount for EPD Waiver participants was found in the handbook, so the personal needs allowance is marked unverified.
Sources
Read September 4, 2026.
Same question, other states: Nebraska · Nevada.
Related: what assisted living actually costs · assisted living vs. staying home vs. a CCRC · why home care has a waitlist and a nursing home doesn’t.
General information drawn from each state’s own Medicaid agency and federal statute, not legal, tax or financial advice. Medicaid is administered state by state; waiver names, coverage decisions, waitlists and allowance amounts change by state budget and legislative action. This page cannot see your own state’s current caseload. We are not a law firm, a benefits counselor, or a fiduciary, and this is not personalized advice. We sell nothing on this page and earn nothing from it.
Related: District of Columbia’s Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance; the amount a nursing-facility resident keeps from their own income each month.