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WASHINGTON, DC — According to veterans’ advocates, new policies, staffing shortages and a general lack of publicity are hindering VA programs meant to help veterans modify their homes and automobiles to accommodate disabilities and to fully take advantage of adaptive sports opportunities.
VA’s Specially Adaptive Housing (SAH) grant program provides up to $117,000 in funding for disabled veterans to build new homes or modify existing homes to help them better live more independently. As part of the process, an SAH agent inspects the home to help determine what work needs to be done to meet the veterans’ needs.
Staffing shortages are delaying or preventing those visits from happening, however, according to Paralyzed Veterans of America representative Julie Howell in testimony before the House VA Economic Opportunity Oversight Subcommittee.
“These face-to-face meetings are critical in ensuring that VA funds are properly applied to medically necessary adaptations and that the work needed is completed by a reputable contractor,” Howell told lawmakers. “Due to recent staffing reforms, SAH agents are now expected to cover a larger catchment area, they are prohibited from travel on toll roads, which increases the time it takes to travel to a veteran’s home and are expected to conduct many inspections virtually”.
“It is highly unlikely that an SAH agent is going to be able to perform a virtual home inspection with the same level of detail and understanding as an in-person inspection. This leaves a lot of room for errors and mistakes, and therefore begs the question, ‘Who will be responsible for subpar construction or inappropriate materials, when remote inspections are the only option?’”She added, “We fear that, without robust staffing of the SAH program, … service-connected catastrophically disabled veterans will not be able to receive the dedicated attention they need for their individual situations.”
VA’s Automotive Adaptive Equipment (AAE) is considered a relatively straightforward benefit for veterans to utilize. Under the program, VA reimburses or pays for adaptive equipment for eligible veterans who have certain disabilities. The specific equipment covered is prescribed by a VA physician or a certified drivers rehabilitation specialist. These include low-effort or sensitized steering, mechanical hand controls and electronic accelerators and brakes.
The list of covered equipment also includes more common items, such as power steering, power brakes and air conditioning. However, Howell said, in 2024, VA issued a final rule listing the reimbursement rate of these items at zero dollars, “thereby creating significant roadblocks and increasing financial burden.”
Veterans often appeal these decisions, which are regularly overturned by the Board of Veterans Appeals, Howell said, adding, “It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars.”
VA also provides grants to help veterans participate in adaptive sports, which patients are frequently introduced to in VA rehabilitation programs with the help of a recreational therapist.
“VA recreational therapists provide direct care to veterans and help them bridge the gap between clinical rehabilitation and community reintegration, which leads to decreased suicidal ideation and improved clinical outcomes,” she noted.
Currently, recreational therapists are not on the list of roles exempt from VA’s planned staffing cuts, Howell added, pointing out, “We believe that as a direct care provider and a critical component of a care team for a catastrophically injured veteran, they should be added to that exempt list.”
One problem affecting all three of these programs is a general lack of awareness among veterans that they exist. And if they are aware of the programs, they still might find it difficult to navigate the red tape involved.
In a recent survey of veterans conducted by Homes For Our Troops, a nonprofit that builds and donates specially adapted housing for veterans, while most respondents were familiar with the SAH benefit, 20% found the application difficult and many experienced inconsistencies in approval standards from region to region. Only half of respondents knew about the adaptive automobile grant program, and 60% of those who knew about it struggled with the application process. Nearly 80% of respondents had little or no knowledge of VA’s adaptive sports offerings.
The subcommittee chair, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), expressed strong concern over VA’s failure to tell veterans about these programs.
“It’s just baffling to me that any veteran, especially someone being medically discharged, is unaware of these programs. That is a galactic failure. We’re gonna fix that,” Van Orden said. “These programs will be introduced into the [Transition Assistance Program], and for someone not to have thought of this earlier is shameful.”
