What happens when a person who has no spouse, children or siblings, no savings, property, and no income other than SSI passes?

You write a lovely obituary for him and find a nice picture to go with it. You give that to a funeral director to hold on to; it's called pre-planning. If he has ANY life insurance, find the policy and take that to the funeral director. Medicaid would not have taken any life insurance that had no cash value and only paid a death benefit . Certainly the Masons will honor him and provide some service, so would Catholic Charities. If he was a vet the VA will help with a color guard or gun salute. Look for a Will somewhere, if it names an Executor, that person is in charge of the arrangements.

Thank you JessieBelle for your answer. He has received a phenomenal amount of help from Medicaid, the Department of Aging, Catholic Social Services and the local hospice chapter, so I suppose I am worrying about nothing. The Lord has provided for both of us with these agencies and are grateful and awed by it all. jennegibbs, I guess I am starting to grieve already and feeling out of the loop because this is new stuff to me and I don't know what to expect since neither of us can afford the end of life stuff. I have forgotten that he is a 32 degree Mason and he thinks that the Masonic Lodge will step in, but he hasn't been particularly active physically or financially, for a very long time, so I am not so sure. Since I am childless myself and kinda at odds with my siblings (they are upset that I am staying with Bill instead of our 91 year old mother) I am feeling empty and alone already. I want Bill to be remembered by more people than me - he is a very engaging fellow and people like him, but people have come and gone in his life a lot - I just don't know how I can have an impact on that. Again, thanks for your responses.

In situations such as this, the state will often arrange for a pauper's funeral. The results can differ. I worked with someone with AIDS one time who had no money. His family were also unable to pay for burial. In his circumstance a local funeral home donated a grave to him. They also donated a simple service. They did this out of the charity of their hearts. It isn't a requirement. I imagine more often there will be no charity and one of the governments will arrange to have the body cremated. Since he is on hospice, you may want to talk to them about it to see what the procedure would be.

What kinds of things are you concerned about? His funeral? End-of-life medical decisions?