In response to months of pressure from veterans advocates and elected officials, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday it would change a widely criticized rule that excludes the most disabled veterans from programs designed for them. in addition to subsidized housing.
HUD officials have previously said they cannot change the rule, which counts service-connected disability benefits as income. The compensation is based on the veteran’s disability percentage up to 100 percent and can increase the veteran’s income above the maximum allowed in housing limited to low-income residents.
“The days when veterans have to choose between the VA benefits they deserve and the housing support they need are finally over,” VA Secretary Dennis McDonald said in a statement. is a critical step forward that will help veterans across the country and bring us one step closer to our ultimate goal of permanently ending veteran homelessness.”
On October 30, 2021, Lavon Johnson, a 35-year-old Iraq War veteran, played the piano in a tent on Veterans Street along San Vicente Avenue, an unincorporated area near Brentwood. at Fort Hood and deployed to Iraq in 2006 and 2007, and has been homeless on Veterans Street for about a year.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“It looks like we’ve had a huge victory,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Northridge), who introduced a rule-changing bill but also urged former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia · Fudge finds a faster solution.
“Veterans who have served our country should never have to choose between housing and disability benefits,” said Mayor Karen Bass, who pushed for the change. “I sincerely thank the Biden-Harris administration and the many leaders who helped craft this significant policy change that will save lives and get more veterans into permanent housing.”
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Northridge, and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., walk down the House steps of the U.S. Capitol on January 12, 2023 chat.
(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)
In a class-action lawsuit filed by veterans over a series of complaints filed by the Veterans Administration, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ruled in May that the policy discriminated against disabled veterans. “Those who give the most receive the least,” he wrote.
HUD’s announcement came on the third day of a nonjury trial in the lawsuit in Los Angeles, which is designed in part to determine what remedies Carter will order to end discrimination.
“This change is welcome, but long overdue,” said Mark Rosenbaum, public counsel and veterans litigator. “The final end to this should not come through lawsuits and a federal judge ruling that a cruel and insane policy that leaves our most disabled veterans on the streets instead of living in housing is illegal and discriminatory. .
The issue has long been a source of frustration and anger for veterans, but as new housing is being built at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ West Los Angeles campus, veterans living in a small hometown there are learning they don’t qualify for the housing because They are not eligible for that housing. Their income exceeds the limit for veterans’ benefits called HUD VASH vouchers.
In January, Sherman challenged Fudge at a congressional hearing, saying that while he was pushing for legislation, he didn’t think the solution would require changing the law.
“Your department is more functional than Congress,” Sherman told Fudge. “So I hope that instead of turning to us and saying, this is what we should do, I can turn to you and tell you this is what you can do.”
“If I could do it today, I would,” replied Fudge, who retired in March.
Sherman blamed the eight-month delay on bureaucracy, but said he thought conversations with Acting Secretary Adelina Todman helped.
“I think she’s done more with that,” he said.
Bass also pressured Todman to make the change as a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In April, more than 50 mayors across the country raised the issue at meetings with the Biden administration and key members of the U.S. House and Senate.
A sign supporting housing homeless veterans hangs outside a tent on Veterans Street on San Vicente Avenue in west Los Angeles on October 30, 2021.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
HUD is also providing $20 million in additional administrative funding to 245 public housing agencies in 43 states to expand their Housing Search Assistance to support veterans, expand the program’s landlord recruitment, provide incentives and retention payments, and assist veterans. Pay a security deposit and provide assistance to the landlord.
The new policy also requires public housing agencies that administer HUD-VASH vouchers to set veteran income eligibility at 80 percent of area median income, up from the generally applicable 50 percent. Expanded eligibility will allow for placement of more veterans.
Under the new policy, disability compensation will still be included in income and used to calculate the amount of rent a veteran must pay, but it will not be factored into eligibility. Tenants of affordable housing must pay 30% of their income as rent.
Sherman said he kept the rent calculation in the legislation because the change would have budgetary implications that would make it harder to pass.
“I want to go check the eligibility first and then come back and process the rent calculation,” he said.
Sherman said he thinks the policy change is better than the U.S. District Court ruling because it cannot be appealed.
