Offering housing to Veterans

[Carrie Smukal]

I am purchasing a home in Wisconsin and offering it for rent. I have had a veteran ask me if I would be interested in offering this home as a Veterans home? It sounds interesting to me and would like to entertain this idea. As of now I offer single and two family homes. Has anyone had any experience in this? Have any advice for me? Thanks!

[Bradley Bogdan]

It's been some time since this thread was active, but I figured I'd chime in on it anyway, as it seems no one had a totally clear understanding of the programs and partnerships the VA currently seeks and offers. I have first hand experience in all four of the available programs, so I speak from a good base of knowledge. Currently, as a property owner, you could be interested in any of the following programs: HUD-VASH, Supportive Services for Veterans and Families (SSVF), Grant and Per Diem (GPD), and Healthcare for Homeless Veterans (HCHV). If you own commercial rental space, the VA may be interested in leasing space for any planned expansions of services in their area, but I haven't had much experience in that realm. I just know that those deals happen.

So, other than being a mess of acronyms, what do those programs actually do?

HUD-VASH: This is the program most likely to be a good fit for people who manage or own rentals. From a financial side, this is Section 8, but exclusively for veterans. To qualify, they need to be eligible for medical services from the VA, be low income and homeless. Slightly more complex than that, but that's all that's important to us here. The beauty of the program is, unlike regular Section 8 tenants, the VA provides wrap around supportive services to the veteran. At minimum, each voucher holder is assigned a Social Worker, such as myself, to provide regular meetings and case management to the veteran to ensure they succeed in housing. This can take on a lot of different forms, from making sure they're budgeting well, maintaining their premise appropriately, assisting with transportation, facilitating in-home care for more medically fragile veterans, etc. In urban areas, HUD-VASH also has a specially assigned medical team that also works with veterans in the program, to make sure they are able to get timely access to any medical or mental health care needed. In more rural areas, the Social Worker ensures timely access to local medical and mental health services, as necessary. I've often wondered how landlords deal with problem tenants when they can't call someone like myself to assist. Reading here and talking with my parents, it seems that the options are few and messy.

Bottom line, this support translates to a fantastic success rate with veterans in the program, especially impressive considering most, if not all, of the veterans in the program have some aspect to their rental history, credit, or at least their current homelessness and limited income, that would cause most landlords to deny their application. Over 95% of the over 80 veterans I've helped find rentals and use the program were still in their rental and current on rent and utilities at the one year mark. Our local Public Housing Authority statistics indicate that roughly 50% of Section 8 vouchers go unused in the 2-4 month search window after they are issued, usually because of an inability to come up with a deposit or locate a rental willing to rent to them. Another sizable portion are returned to the PHA, or revoked from the tenant, for breaking program rules each year, all of which reinforces the negative stereotypes of Section 8 renters in our community. This program solves both of those issues for the vast majority of tenants, and if the fair market rent values in your area work out well with your financial picture, this could be a fantastic way to have VERY low vacancy rates at your rentals. If people are interested, I can definitely talk more in depth about how to successfully engage with this program. 

SSVF: Most areas of the US have local non-profits who run this program on a contract basis for the VA. The program is designed to be a one-time rental assistance program, able to fund part or all of a security deposit, move-in costs, etc. for a veteran moving into housing, as well as a time limited period of case management. Also, the program is able to fund veterans to cover back rent or utilities, if its determined the veteran is in a temporary situation which could see him/her evicted. These housing stabilization services also come with a time limited period of case management, though on a broad basis compared to HUDVASH, SSVF case management is significantly less involved. This program could be a great way to help veteran tenants avoid eviction or afford the hump of costs to get into a rental, including a nice high security deposit.

GPD/HCHV: These programs are both contracted programs run by local non-profits. They are both group housing programs, GPD more transitional living, longer term and lower level of services while HCHV is usually shorter term, high level of services and more focused on mental health, physical health, or substance abuse treatment. Neither program is likely something anyone here would be interested in investing in, unless they also had a related non-profit they would like to run these programs, but the non-profits who run they programs often rent the site that they operate them at. I'd encourage anyone here to keep an open mind to any rental pitch for a program like this, as they have little to no impact on the local community, despite the NIMBYism that they usually have to fight through to get off the ground in a community. 

I hope this helps clarify what is out there and available to our veterans in your local area!