Examining “risk” we see two different additional risks.  

You appear to be an investor who only cares about their spreadsheet's best possible outcome without any regard for risk.

So I'm strongly considering adding a handful of these to my buy & hold portfolio.I understand that there's no "risk-free" method to acquiring these properties subto, but have any of you had success over the long-term acquiring properties with VA loans attached?

If they want to severely overpay, cool, but as others have said, the risk of default in this case is probably high 98th percentile. 

I know what my ideal life looks like in ten years, unfortunately, I don’t feel like I can have my ideal life now because I am having to stay in the state that I am in until we can move without risk of my husband losing custody of his child, which will be in about 10 years so believe it or not I do spend a lot of time thinking about what I want the future to be like.

An entity that operates hundreds or thousands of apartment units has far less concentration risk than an owner of a few rental homes, whose tenants may all be impacted by COVID-19.Do you think Portland’s ten-year trend of positive economic growth for landlords will continue, or will it flatten out, possibly even declining in the wake of COVID-19?

I don’t know why anyone would take that risk for little reward.

I think it comes down to your goals and risk threshhold.

Risks and rewards to this type of tenant? 

Various legal setups can  mitigate a large part of this risk.