My father needs to be in a care facility. He has a pension and some savings. We need the money to support his home expenses while we prepare the home for sale and time to attract a buyer. It seems like he would have to liquidate everything to qualify for assistance but he needs money to be able to liquidate his assets.
Angel
You really need to see an elder law attorney because you are about to make a big mistake if you sell the home but have already qualified for Medicaid.
If your father has already applied for medicaid, and medicaid is exempting his house (one home and one car are allowed when on medicaid) then the sale of the house would cause a penalty period and you would not get Medicaid coverage until the money from the home is spent down. You are much better off keeping the home as an exempt asset, against which medicaid will put a lien to recover costs after he passes.
If you keep the home and one car, then you will simply need to spend down his assets to the required amount (set by california).
If the home still has costs (such as a mortgage, upkeep, taxes etc) then another family member would need to pay for these costs in order to keep the home. No spending is allowed on the home as all the assets are then Medicaid assets to be spent for the care of your father.
Your second option is to sell the home now,and accept the penalty period Medicaid will put on him....which means he will pay out of pocket for his nursing home care until the penalty period is over and his assets are spent down.
Angel