VA Improves Housing Benefits for Severely Disabled

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New VA Rules for Specially Adapted Housing Grants
Program Aids Most Seriously Injured
WASHINGTON (January 4, 2008) - A change in the law that allows certain
seriously injured veterans and servicemembers to receive multiple grants
for constructing or modifying homes has resulted in many new grants, the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today.

Before the change, eligible veterans and servicemembers could receive
special adaptive housing grants of $10,000 or $50,000 from VA only once.
Now they may use the benefit up to three times, so long as the total
grants stay within specified limits outlined in the law.

"Veterans seriously disabled during their military service have earned
this benefit," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.
"This change ensures that every eligible veteran and servicemember has
the chance to use the maximum amount afforded to them by our grateful
nation."

In order to ensure all previous recipients are aware of this
opportunity, VA has mailed more than 16,000 letters to eligible
veterans, reaching out to those who used only a portion of their grant
or who decided not to use the grant even after initially qualifying.

The response over the past year has been dramatic, with more than 4,600
applications received thus far. Of these, approximately 3,900 veterans
have been determined eligible under the new law, and more than 200
grants already awarded.

VA has averaged about 1,000 adaptive housing grant applications per year
during the past 10 years. Since the program began in 1948, it has
provided more than $650 million in grants to about 34,000 seriously
disabled veterans.

To ensure veterans' and servicemembers' needs are met and grant money is
spent properly, VA works closely throughout the entire process with
contractors and architects to design, construct and modify homes that
meet the individuals' housing accessibility needs.

Eligible for the benefit are those with specific service-connected
disabilities entitling them to VA compensation for a "permanent and
total disability." They may receive a grant to construct an adapted
home or to modify an existing one to meet their special needs.

VA has three types of adapted housing grants available. The Specially
Adapted Housing grant (SAH), currently limited to $50,000, is generally
used to create a wheelchair-accessible home for those who may require
such assistance for activities of daily living.
VA's Home Loan Guaranty program and the Native American Direct Loan
program may also be used with the SAH benefit to purchase an adaptive
home.

The Special Housing Adaptations (SHA) grant, currently limited to
$10,000, is generally used to assist veterans with mobility throughout
their homes due to blindness in both eyes, or the anatomical loss or
loss of use of both hands or extremities below the elbow.

A third type established by the new law, the Temporary Residence
Adaptation (TRA) grant, is available to eligible veterans and seriously
injured active duty servicemembers who are temporarily living or intend
to temporarily live in a home owned by a family member.

While the SAH and SHA grants require ownership and title to a house, in
creating TRA Congress recognized the need to allow veterans and active
duty members who may not yet own homes to have access to the adaptive
housing grant program.

Under TRA, veterans and servicemembers eligible under the SAH program
would be permitted to use up to $14,000, and those eligible under the
SHA program would be allowed to use up to $2,000 of the maximum grant
amounts. Each grant would count as one of the three grants allowed
under the new program.

"The goal of all three grant programs is to provide a barrier-free
living environment that offers the country's most severely injured
veterans or servicemembers a level of independent living," added Peake.

Other VA adaptive housing benefits are currently available through
Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service's "Independent Living"
program, the Insurance Service's Veterans Mortgage Life Insurance
program, and the Veterans Health Administration's Home Improvement and
Structural Alterations grant.

For more information about grants and other adaptive housing programs,
contact a local VA regional office at 1-800-827-1000 or local veteran
service organization. Additional program information and grant
applications (VAF-26-4555) can be found at
http://www.homeloans.va.gov/sah.htm