VA Subcommittee Passes Rep. Boozman's Bill to Increase Housing Grants for Disabled Veterans
VA Subcommittee Passes Rep. Boozman's Bill to Increase Housing Grants for Disabled Veterans
Washington, Sep 8 -
Legislation to increase housing grants for disabled veterans sponsored by Rep. John Boozman (R-AR) today passed the House Veterans Affairs (VA) Economic Opportunity Subcommittee. The bill increases a program that provides grants for disabled veterans to modify their homes so they better accommodate their disabilities.
"The VA's housing programs are designed to provide veterans an opportunity to own their homes and adapt them to a veteran's particular living needs. This is becoming more and more important as veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan return to their communities. What we are trying to do is make it easier for severely disabled veterans to transition from living in a medical facility to independent living," said Boozman.
The bill also allows the grant program to be used for modifications to the home where the disabled veteran lives, even if he or she does not own the property. This enables many younger, single veterans who are disabled who return to live with their families to be eligible to modify their parents' home through the program.
"This program is important because disabled veterans have specific needs that their homes need to be able to accommodate. For instance, a veteran in a wheelchair may need to widen the hallways or add a wheelchair ramp to his or her home. This bill will increase the amount of money that veteran can apply for to make the necessary modifications," said Boozman.
Specifically, H.R. 3665, the "Veterans Housing Improvement Act of 2005" would:
* Provide for adaptive housing assistance to disabled veterans residing temporarily in housing owned by a family member not to exceed $10,000 for the most severely disabled veterans and to $2,000 for less severely disabled veterans;
* Increase the VA specially adaptive housing grant to $51,000 from $50,000 for the most severely disabled veterans and to $10,500 from$10,000 for less severely disabled veterans;
The bill also makes permanent the pilot program under which the VA Secretary may make direct housing loans to Native American veterans and extends the eligibility for such direct loans to certain non-Native American veterans who have a meaningful interest in the property under tribal law and are the spouses of a Native American.
"The Native American home loan pilot program has been a success and it's time to make it permanent," said Boozman.
http://www.boozman.house.gov/News/DocumentPrint.aspx?DocumentID=33950