Federal government ends policy that blocked unhoused LA veterans from housing

Strict income eligibility rules that prevented some unhoused veterans in Los Angeles from obtaining housing are now being rescinded by the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday that service-related disability benefits will no longer count against applicants seeking housing help through a federal program designed for veterans. Until now, those benefits were often enough to put unhoused veterans above the income limit for obtaining a housing voucher.

The move comes in the middle of a federal trial happening in Los Angeles. The case was brought by 14 unhoused veterans who allege the federal government has persistently failed to fulfill its duty to provide housing and healthcare to disabled veterans.

“The change is welcomed but years overdue,” said Mark Rosenbaum, a Public Counsel attorney representing the plaintiffs, in a statement. “It shouldn’t take a lawsuit — and a federal judge’s ruling that found the policy to be unlawful and discriminatory — to end a cruel and insane practice that has kept our most disabled veterans on the streets instead of in housing.”

What the changes mean

The HUD policy changes will take effect immediately, though it’s not yet clear when the local agencies that administer the vouchers will update their eligibility processes for veterans affected by the rule change.

Getting a voucher is just one step toward securing housing. Rosenbaum said veterans in L.A. currently have few places where they can use the vouchers, and without options they will remain unhoused.

The VA agreed in 2015 as part of a separate settlement to build 1,200 units of housing on its West L.A. campus. Currently, the campus only includes about 230 permanent supportive housing units.

“Until that housing exists on that campus, it becomes a symbolic measure,” Rosenbaum told LAist. “Important — but for right now, symbolic.”

How we got here

For years, the problem was highly visible to anyone driving past the sprawling West L.A. VA campus. Unhoused veterans set up a sidewalk encampment there called “Veterans Row,” maintaining it as a symbol of the VA’s failures for years. The encampment was cleared in 2021.

At last count, L.A. County is home to more than 3,400 unhoused veterans, most of them living unsheltered.

Last month, the judge overseeing the federal trial ruled that VA policies disqualifying the most severely injured veterans from help constituted illegal housing discrimination.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter wrote in his ruling, “Defendants have a duty to use the West L.A. VA Grounds for the establishment, construction, and permanent maintenance (and operation) of housing and healthcare for veterans with disabilities.”

What caused the problem

Getting into those units on the West L.A. campus has been essentially impossible for many veterans suffering from physical disabilities, PTSD and other service-related impairments. Benefits paid out by the VA put the most severely disabled veterans very close to the income limit for HUD-VASH vouchers, and any additional income from Social Security or other sources can disqualify applicants.

HUD officials said on Thursday the department would remove disability benefits from eligibility equations by, “Adopting an alternative definition of annual income for applicants and participants of the HUD-VASH program that excludes veterans’ service-connected disability benefits.”

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said she has been lobbying the federal government for these eligibility changes as chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Homelessness.

“I wholeheartedly thank the Biden-Harris Administration and the many leaders who helped enact this significant policy change which will save lives and bring more Veterans inside into permanent housing,” Bass said in a statement on the change.