District 24 Representative Salud Carbajal introduced the Home for the Brave Act Thursday, a bipartisan bill that would eliminate the requirement for veterans receiving disability for service-related injury or illness to claim it as income for housing eligibility for programs through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
In doing so, veterans with a high percentage of disability would be more likely to qualify for housing assistance programs through HUD.
As it stands, many veterans who receive disability for service-related injury or illness have to claim it when applying for housing, pushing their income too high to qualify for the assistance.
Several programs on the Central Coast that benefit veterans, including San Luis Obispo County Veterans Services and CAPSLO’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF), are on board with the proposal.
“The bipartisan approach will enable veterans and their families the opportunity to receive long-term assistance. Stable housing is the first step in giving our support for the veterans and their families,” said Biz Steinberg, Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County (CAPSLO) CEO.
“If they're 100% disabled, we're limiting their ability to seek housing because the cost of living here is unattainable,” said Morgan Boyd, San Luis Obispo County Veterans Services Officer. “The disability payments that these veterans receive, it is simply not enough to live on here.”
“The IRS gets this right. They don't treat these benefits as income,” said Congressman Carbajal. “If you're claiming a veteran's benefits as income, veterans are in a catch-22 since they can then be told they are ineligible for assistance because they earn slightly too much money to get the helping hand that they need.”
This is the fourth time Carbajal has introduced this bill that he says is “common sense legislation.” He tells KSBY that with bipartisan support, it stands a chance in Congress.
"Based on 2022 data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the average veteran on disability is receiving $20,686 a year. That total would be removed from the calculation of the veterans' income for HUD eligibility, which is determined oftentimes by median income of the region – which for SLO County is roughly $82,000. We estimate that large an average deduction would greatly improve veterans' ability to access HUD housing assistance on the Central Coast and around the country," Rep. Carbajal said in a statement.
