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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a benefit called Housing Grants for Disabled Veterans. It is a two-part program that includes the Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) Grant and the Special Housing Adaptation (SHA) Grant. These programs provide grants 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. This column will cover the SAH Grant.

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.

• 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 Grant, 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.

• 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.

In addition, the home in question must be owned by the eligible individual. An eligible veteran is allowed to use this grant benefit a total of three times, up to the maximum dollar amount of the grant, as set by law. (This amount may be adjusted upward on an annual basis set by the cost-of-construction index.) The maximum dollar amount for fiscal year 2023 (October–September) for the SAH Grant was $109,986, the amount may change for fiscal year 2024.

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@tularecounty.ca.gov.