Sánchez makes push to expand veteran housing eligibility
WASHINGTON – Today, in response to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) release of the final rule to implement Sec. 102-Sec. 104 of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA), Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA) stressed the ongoing need to ensure more veterans, especially those wounded during service, are eligible for HUD-assisted housing.
"The best measure of our appreciation for those who serve overseas is how we care for them when they return home. While we have made progress to decrease the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in this country, we are still failing – especially in California," said Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez. "One of the biggest issues I hear from veterans in Los Angeles County is that with disability benefits, their income is too high to qualify for subsidized housing. While this final rule takes steps to exclude some disability benefits from income, it fails to do so broadly and will continue to force many veterans with limited means – who served our country bravely – to find affordable housing entirely on their own."
Following the enactment of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) under the Obama Administration, HUD announced proposed changes that would exclude deferred disability and aid and attendance benefits as income, while also requesting feedback on the exclusion of veteran's disability benefits more generally.
On January 24, Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA) led 35 of her colleagues in sending a letter to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young, expressing support for HUD's proposed rule changes and the exclusion of veteran's disability benefits more broadly to help reduce veteran homelessness.
Just days after Sánchez penned her letter, HUD issued its final rule. While the final rule included Sánchez's request to exclude deferred disability aid and attendance benefits as income, it failed to exclude veteran's disability benefits from income more broadly.
The final rule is now with OMB where it awaits final publication.
Recent data shows that veteran homelessness has decreased nationally. However, according to latest counts, there are 11,000 unhoused veterans in California, which is 31 percent of homeless veterans nation-wide.
In addition to Congresswoman Sánchez, the letter sent on January 24 was signed by Reps. Dwight Evans (D-PA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Mary Sattler Peltola (D-AK), Ted W. Lieu (D-CA), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA), Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Juan Vargas (D-CA), J. Luis Correa (D-CA), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Gwen S. Moore (D-WI), Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), John Garamendi (D-CA), David J. Trone (D-MD), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Jill Tokuda (D-HI), Katie Porter (D-CA), Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), Sylvia R. Garcia (D-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D. (D-NY), Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. (D-GA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Joe Courtney (D-CT), Julia Brownley (D-CA), William R. Keating (D-MA), Sara Jacobs, (D-CA), and Jim Costa (D-CA).
The letter was also endorsed by Habitat for Humanity Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
The full text of the letter Congresswoman Sánchez sent to HUD and OMB on January 24 is available HERE and below.
January 24, 2023
Secretary Marcia L. Fudge
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 7th Street SW; Washington, DC 20410
Director Shalanda Young
Office of Management and Budget
725 17th Street NW STE 50001; Washington DC 20503
Dear Secretary Fudge and Director Young,
We appreciate the work the Biden Administration has accomplished to support veterans and reduce homelessness. We as a nation owe our veterans the support and care they deserve after returning home from active or reserve duty.
As the administration implements critical parts of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA), we write to you today in strong support of HUD's proposed changes, issued in its proposed regulations to implement sec. 102-Sec. 104 of HOTMA on September 17, 2019. These proposed regulations exclude deferred disability and aid and attendance benefits as income, while also requesting feedback on the exclusion of veteran's disability benefits from income more generally.
President Obama signed HOTMA into law on July 29, 2016, making necessary reforms to subsidized housing programs to better address homelessness and other affordable housing and community development needs. With this intent in mind, we urge you to broadly exclude veteran disability benefits as income and increase affordable housing assistance for thousands of our nation's veterans. These changes, if finalized, would assist many veterans experiencing homelessness in becoming eligible for HUD-assisted housing.
We also seek additional clarity on HUD's rulemaking process and timeline related to this proposed rule. In 2019, HUD issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The Office of Management and Budget's Office of Regulatory Affairs makes clear that HUD had finalized these regulations and have been awaiting publication since July 2022. While we understand that the implementation of this rule requires considerable HUD resources, we recognize the urgent need for relief among veterans, particularly veterans with disabilities, who continue to lack access to safe affordable housing in our communities.
According to a Pew Research study, most veterans say while the military prepared them for active duty, only half of respondents report feeling well prepared by the Armed Forces for their transition to civilian life. Additionally, veterans are overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness. HUD's 2020 Point Time Count found that there are well over 11,000 veterans experiencing homelessness in the state of California, and nationally, the number of unsheltered veterans increased by 6% from 2019 to 2020.
An individual's physical environment is a primary determinant of their health. Safe and affordable housing can considerably reduce poor health outcomes. Additionally, female veterans are particularly at a disadvantage and their representation among people experiencing homelessness continues to increase. According to the Congressional Research Service, female veterans face extensive challenges that further contribute to their risks of homelessness. For example, women veterans are more likely to have experienced sexual trauma than women in the general population and are more likely than male veterans to be single parents. In 2020, the VA noted that men experiencing homelessness are frequently living on their own, without family or dependents, and are more likely to use federal programs for emergency shelter and shorter-term housing. The VA noted further that women experiencing homelessness are more often accompanied by children, which may prevent them from accessing these services that are traditionally targeted to individual adults.
To this day, female-identifying veterans face significant challenges when seeking safe housing. Much of the existing emergency housing shelters require women to live in open spaces or prohibits children from residing there. This is particularly difficult for veterans who previously experienced sexual trauma and/or have children. The Government Accountability Office found in 2011 that women veterans faced difficulties finding safe housing as they awaited more permanent options. Specifically, nine of the 142 VA transitional housing programs the GAO surveyed for the report indicated that there had been reported incidents of sexual harassment or assault on women residents.
The Housing Choice Voucher program provides flexibility for veterans, especially women veterans, in determining an appropriate, safe place to live. For many veterans, the proposed changes of this rule means increased housing affordability and stability. We applaud the work that the Administration has done thus far in reducing homelessness, and we urge you to improve on this work by finalizing and publishing changes to exclude veterans' disability benefits as income, thereby making affordable housing options more accessible.
We thank you for your consideration and look forward to hearing about additional progress to reduce homelessness among our nation's veterans.
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