Implementation Of Temporary Residence Adaptation Grants

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Partial reprint from web site go to site to read full report

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09637r.pdf

Subject: Veterans Affairs: Implementation of Temporary Residence Adaptation Grants

Subject: Veterans Affairs: Implementation of Temporary Residence Adaptation Grants

As of May 2009, approximately 34,000 service members had been wounded in action as part

of Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. In response to concerns about

the assistance that service members injured in combat receive when they transition back into

civilian life, Congress has enacted several laws to improve the benefits available to veterans

and service members, including the Veterans’ Housing Opportunity and Benefits

Improvement Act of 2006.1 This act authorized the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to

expand its previously existing adaptive housing assistance grants to include eligible

individuals temporarily living in a home owned by a family member, known as Temporary

Residence Adaptation (TRA) grants.

Section 101 of the Veterans’ Housing Opportunity and Benefits Improvement Act of 2006

mandated us to submit to Congress an interim report by June 15, 2009, and a final report by

June 15, 2011, on VA’s implementation of TRA. This interim report describes the number and

characteristics of TRA grants and grant recipients and provides information on VA’s policies

and processes for providing the grants.

To address the mandate, we collected and analyzed VA data on TRA recipients; examined VA

policies, procedures, and related documents; and interviewed VA and Department of Defense

staff and representatives of selected veterans service organizations. For a detailed

description of our scope and methodology, see enclosure I. We conducted our work between

February 2009 and June 2009 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing

standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient,

appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based onour audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for

our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

Background

Since 1948, VA has provided adaptive housing assistance grants to eligible individuals who

have certain service-connected disabilities to construct an adapted home or modify an

existing home to accommodate their disabilities.2 Today, VA provides adaptive housing

assistance primarily through two programs—Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) and Special

Housing Adaptation (SHA).3

The SAH grant program provides financial assistance to veterans and service members who

are entitled to compensation for permanent and total service-connected disability due to the

loss or loss of use of multiple limbs, blindness and limb loss, or a severe burn injury.4

Eligible individuals may receive up to three SAH grants totaling no more than 50 percent of

the cost of a specially adapted house, up to the aggregate maximum amount of $60,000,

adjusted annually based on a cost-of-construction index.5 Grants may be used to construct a

house or remodel an existing house, or they may be applied against the unpaid principal

mortgage balance of a specially adapted house.6 The SHA grant program—which is similar to

SAH but is for individuals with slightly less serious disabilities—may be used for slightly

different purposes and cannot exceed $

In 2006, Congress created the TRA benefit, allowing veterans to apply for a grant to adapt the

home of a family member with whom they are temporarily residing.8 The benefit was further2P.L. 80-702 (June 19, 1948).

338 U.S.C. sec. 2101(a); 38 U.S.C. sec. 2101(b).

4Specifically, the veteran’s or service member’s disability must be service connected and rated as permanent and

100 percent disabling due to at least one of the following: the loss, or loss of use, of both legs in a way that

precludes locomotion without the aid of braces, crutches, canes, or a wheelchair; blindness in both eyes and loss

of use of one leg; the loss, or loss of use, of one leg together with residuals of organic disease or injury or the loss

or loss of use of one arm affecting the functions of balance or propulsion in a way that precludes locomotion

without the aid of braces, crutches, canes, or a wheelchair; the loss or loss of use of both arms so as to preclude

the use of the arms at or above the elbows; or a severe burn injury (38 U.S.C. sec. 2101(a)(2)). The Veterans’

Benefits Improvement Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-454) added the loss or loss of use of both arms so as to preclude the

use of the arms at or above the elbows to the list of disability criteria for SAH, and the Housing and Economic

Recovery Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-289) added severe burn to the list of disability criteria for SAH and SHA.

Regulations on these new criteria have been drafted but have not yet been issued, according to VA officials.

5The Veterans’ Housing Opportunity and Benefits Improvement Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-233) expanded the SAH and

SHA benefits by increasing the number of grants available to eligible individuals from one to three. The Housing

and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (P.L 110-289) increased the maximum allowable SAH and SHA grants to

$60,000 and $12,000, respectively, adjusted annually based on a cost-of-construction index.

638 U.S.C. 2102(a)(1)-(4).

7Specifically, to qualify for an SHA grant, the veteran or service member’s disability must be service connected and

rated as permanent and 100 percent disabling due to at least one of the following: blindness in both eyes with

5/200 visual acuity or less; the anatomical loss, or loss of use, of both hands; or a severe burn injury (38 U.S.C. sec.

2101(b)(2)). In addition, SHA grants may be used to adapt a house that an eligible individual or a family member

plans to purchase or which the eligible individual or a family member already owns, provided the house is one

where the eligible individual intends to reside. SHA grants may also be used to purchase a previously adapted

house (38 U.S.C. 2101(b)(1), (3)).

8Veterans’ Housing Opportunity and Benefits Improvement Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-233), June 15, 2006. A family

member is a person related to the grantee by blood, marriage, or adoption (38 C.F.R. sec 36.4401(h)). There is no

definition for temporary. extended to active-duty service members in 2008 with the passage of the Housing and

Economic Recovery Act of 2008.9 The TRA grant program enables veterans and service

members eligible under the SAH and SHA programs to use up to $14,000 and $2,000,

respectively, to modify a family member’s home. Each TRA grant counts as one of the three

grants allowed under either SAH or SHA. TRA grants also count toward the maximum

allowable amount, $60,000 under SAH and $12,000 under SHA. The TRA grant program will

expire on December 31, 2011, unless Congress extends it before then.

VA Has Processed Nine TRA Grants

Utilization of TRA grants has been limited—VA had processed nine TRA grants from the date

of the program’s creation on June 15, 2006, through February 28, 2009. (In contrast, VA

processed 2,431 SAH and SHA grants during the same period.) As shown in table 1, the dollar

amount of the nine TRA grants VA has processed ranged from $3,575 to $14,000, and five of

the nine grants were for the maximum amount of $14,000. All nine grants were for SAH-TRA,

meaning that all nine grantees suffered from one of the more serious service-connected

disabilities described earlier in this report. The nine grantees ranged in age from 26 to 93.

We are unable to report how many of the TRA grantees were veterans and how many were

still on active duty, since the VA division that administers adaptive housing assistance grants

does not collect these data.

__._,_.___ "Keep on, Keepin' on"

Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"

See my web site at:

http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/