Understanding the Policy Change that Increased Access to HUD-VASH for Disabled Veterans

By Tracy Emmanuel, Deputy National Director for HUD-VASH, VHA Homeless Programs Office

April 1, 2026

In August 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a new set of policy changes to help more Veterans receive assistance under the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program, improving their access to housing with wraparound supportive services.

Since the changes were pretty technical, here’s some background that might help explain why this change was good news for Veterans who are experiencing homelessness.

What is HUD-VASH?

HUD-VASH is a program that pairs HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance, which helps make rent affordable, with VA case management and supportive services.

These services are designed to help homeless Veterans and their families find permanent housing and get access to health care, mental health treatment, and other support necessary to help them improve their quality of life and maintain housing over time.

HUD-VASH vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies nationwide. To ensure that these agencies can reach the most Veterans with the greatest needs, HUD established income limits on HUD-VASH program participation. Those limits are based on a concept called “area median income.”

What is area median income?

If you arranged all the households in your community from poorest to wealthiest, the household in the middle would be considered the “median.” That household’s income would then be considered the area median income for your entire community.

Each year, HUD determines the area median income for different household sizes, from those with a single person to those with families of eight or more people, for every county in America. You can use their website to find your community’s area median income on HUD’s Income Limits page.

HUD uses area median income to establish income limits in affordable housing. When setting income limits, HUD allows public housing agencies to choose one of three levels based on percentages of a community’s area median income.

• Extremely Low at 30% of a community’s area median income
• Very Low at 50% of a community’s area median income
• Low at 80% of a community’s area median income

When operating their HUD-VASH programs, many public housing agencies already chose the Low 80% level. However, some chose the Very Low 50% level, which often excluded Veterans with relatively higher household incomes.

So, what’s the problem?

Veterans experiencing homelessness may receive VA benefits as a result of an injury or illness that was acquired or worsened during military service.

In 2024, a homeless Veteran with no dependents (i.e., no spouse or children) and a 100% disability rating received $44,854.20 each year. In many communities, this was enough income for them to live independently.

However, in some circumstances, these benefits could conflict with the income limits for particular communities, which led to frustrating situations for Veterans.

For example, in 2024, if you were a homeless, single, 100%-rated Veteran living in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, you would exceed the Very Low 50% level of $34,050 for that community.

If the local public housing agency chose to operate at the Very Low 50% level, you would be ineligible for HUD-VASH. But, if they chose to operate at the Low 80% level of $54,450 for Cuyahoga County, you would be eligible for HUD-VASH.

If, instead, you were homeless in Calloway County, Kentucky, you would exceed both the Very Low 50% level and the Low 80% level of $42,350 for that area. Even if the local public housing agency chose to operate at the Low 80% level, you would be ineligible for HUD-VASH there, too.

This was extremely frustrating for Veterans trying to find housing and help.

Not only that, but some Veterans who were within the income limits for the HUD-VASH program still were not able to find supportive housing if specific housing units developed for homeless Veterans imposed more restrictive admission guidelines.

This brought us to the dilemma that some Veterans faced: their hard-earned benefits may have made them ineligible for the housing assistance they needed and deserved.

How did the fix work?

The new policy change by HUD did two things.

First, it required all public housing agencies that administered HUD-VASH to set the initial income eligibility for Veteran households at the Low 80% level.

Remember, public housing agencies were previously allowed to choose whichever level they wanted to use. So, while many housing agencies have already adopted the Low 80% level on their own, HUD is now making this increase mandatory across the board.

This was good news for Veterans whose income put them between the Very Low 50% and Low 80% levels for their community. Thanks to this change, we estimated that up to 10% of the homeless Veterans who came to VA for help each year would now be eligible for HUD-VASH.

Second, this change required all public housing agencies to exclude, or not count, Veterans’ service-connected disability benefits when determining income eligibility.

This helped Veterans whose income put them above the Low 80% level for their community. Thanks to this second change, we estimated that an additional 3% of the homeless Veterans who came to VA for help each year were now eligible for HUD-VASH.

So that’s it? Is it fixed now?

HUD’s action, while an important first step, did not directly resolve the obstacles many disabled Veterans faced, especially when seeking to rent from housing projects and apartment communities with restrictive income eligibility caps.

So, in September 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued new guidance regarding its Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, which many housing developers used to finance the construction of affordable housing. With the new guidance, the Treasury adopted HUD’s new income eligibility criteria. Veterans seeking housing in projects financed through the LIHTC program would no longer have their disability benefits counted as income for program eligibility, which would dramatically increase the number of Veterans eligible for this housing.

The job of ending Veteran homelessness isn’t over yet, and we won’t rest until we get it done.