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This issue we will look at a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefit called the Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) Grant. This program provides a grant to servicemembers and veterans with certain permanent and total service-connected disabilities, to either help purchase or construct an adapted home or to modify an existing home to accommodate a disability.

The SAH Grant helps veterans with a qualifying service-connected disability to live independently in a barrier-free environment. This benefit can be used for the following:

• To construct a specially adapted home on land to be acquired;

• To build a home on land already owned if it is suitable to support specially adapted housing;

• To remodel an existing home if it can be made suitable for specially adapted housing; or

• To apply the grant against any unpaid principal mortgage balance of an adapted home that was acquired previously without the benefit of a VA grant.

To qualify for the SAH, the veteran must have a permanent and total disability that is service-connected and must have one of the following:

• Loss of – or loss of use – of both legs;

• Loss of – or loss of use – of both arms;

• Blindness in both eyes, having only light perception, plus loss of or loss of use of one leg;

• Loss of or loss of use of one lower leg together with residuals of organic disease or injury;

• The loss of or loss of use of one leg together with the loss of or loss of use of one arm;

• Certain severe burns; or

• The loss of – or loss of use of – one or more extremities due to service on or after September 11, 2001, which so affects the functions of balance or propulsion as to preclude ambulating without the aid of braces, crutches, canes or a wheelchair

Only 120 veterans and servicemembers each fiscal year can qualify for a grant based on the loss of one extremity after September 11, 2001, as set by Congress. A fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30. If you qualify for, but don't receive, a grant in the current fiscal year because the cap has already been reached, you may be able to use this benefit in future years. The maximum dollar amount for fiscal year 2022 for the SAH Grant is $101,754.

To apply for this benefit, you need to complete a VA Form 26-4555, Application in Acquiring Specially Adapted Housing.

Ken Cruickshank, the Veterans Services Officer for Tulare County, is a retired Navy Master Chief Petty Officer. Contact him at the Veterans Services Office at 3348 W. Mineral King Ave., Visalia; by phone at (559) 713-2880; or by email at KCruicks@tularehhsa.org.