VA Amends Regulations Related to Certain Veterans with Disabilities

The VA is amending its adjudication and loan guaranty regulations which address eligibility and assistance related to specially adapted housing assistance for certain veterans and members of the Armed Forces.  The rule is effective November 8, 2021.

The Ryan Kules and Paul Benne Specially Adaptive Housing Improvement Act of 2019 (the Act) made certain changes to the eligibility requirements for specially adapted housing assistance from the VA, such as removing the requirement that an individual with blindness in both eyes must also have the anatomical loss or loss of use of a lower extremity, and revising the related criteria for the service-connected disability for blindness from “permanent and total” to “permanent.”  The VA’s amendments reflect these changes made by the Act.  These changes apply to all benefit applications received by the VA on or after August 8, 2020, or that were pending before the VA (including the Board of Veterans’ Appeals), the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on August 8, 2020.

In addition, the Act increases the number of grants allowed for individuals eligible for specially adapted housing assistance from three to six.  The VA’s amendments reflect this change, which applies to all benefit applications received by the VA on or after October 1, 2020, or that were pending before the aforementioned forums on October 1, 2020.

The VA notes that it intends to address the other provisions of the Act in future rulemakings.