A key tool in the fight against veteran homelessness will be available to thousands more San Diego veterans after a policy change announced by the Biden Administration last week.
The HUD-VASH program from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs provides rental assistance to low-income veterans. It's one of the key programs that helps veterans out of homelessness, advocates say.
To qualify for the program, veterans must fall under a certain income threshold. But some veterans receive monthly disability payments from the VA and, until this week, the government counted that money as income, which disqualified some veterans from the HUD-VASH program.
Last week HUD announced it would no longer count disability benefits as income for veterans applying for housing vouchers, which local homeless service providers say will qualify thousands of San Diego's homeless veterans for the program.
"(It) was always difficult to see — having to to turn people away simply because they were receiving income that they were entitled for for being in the service," said Jonathan Castillo, the chief regional officer of PATH, a homeless services nonprofit. "This is going to impact a lot of people who have sought services from us in the past that we've had to turn away. We know that once this is in effect that we'll see the impacts right away."
At a news conference in Encinitas Thursday, U.S. Rep. Mike Levin said he and other lawmakers on the House Veterans Affairs Committee have been pushing for the change for years.
"This was a five-year overnight success," Levin said.
While more veterans will qualify for HUD-VASH vouchers, Castillo said they're always in need of landlords willing to rent to veterans and their families.
"We're looking for partners to be part of the solution to resolving homelessness," Castillo said. "And we have a lot of landlords and property owners that are very behind that mission and wanting to be part of the solution."
