To get housing help: National Call Center for Homeless Veterans — 1-877-424-3838.
Free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. VA also runs a confidential online chat for this same call center
if you cannot safely talk out loud — the chat link is on
va.gov/homeless/nationalcallcenter.asp.
You can also walk into any VA Medical Center and ask for the
Homeless Programs Office or the
HUD-VASH Coordinator. You do not need an appointment to ask.
What you get
Three things, together
- Rent money. A Housing Choice Voucher. This is the Section 8 voucher program — not
something like it, not a lesser version of it. It is issued under the same law and run by your local
Public Housing Agency (PHA — the county or city office that hands out housing vouchers). Any landlord
who already takes Section 8 takes this.
- A VA case manager. One person who works with you one-on-one to get you into housing and
keep you there.
- VA care. Your case manager connects you to primary care, mental health services and
substance use treatment, and helps with the practical side — budgeting for the rent, understanding
your lease, and working with your landlord.
Your Family comes with you. HUD-VASH serves homeless veterans and their Families.
A spouse and children are part of the household, not an obstacle to it.
★ Rent, a case manager, and care.
Who qualifies
The three tests
- You are a veteran.
- You are homeless — or you will lose your housing within 14 days and have nowhere
else to go. If your trouble is further out than that, HUD-VASH is usually not the program. Ask the
same VA office about SSVF instead. See the last card on this page.
- VA finds you need ongoing case management to get and keep housing.
You do not need a diagnosis. The old rule that a veteran had to have a chronic mental illness
or a chronic substance use disorder — and accept treatment for it — to get HUD-VASH has been
waived. If somebody told you that years ago, they were right then and wrong now.
Know this going in: taking part in case management is a condition of the rent assistance,
not an optional extra. If you stop working with your case manager, the voucher is at risk.
★ No diagnosis required.
The money rule
The income limit almost nobody prints
Most flyers just say "must meet income requirements." Here is the actual number.
- Your income must be at or below the low-income limit — up to 80% of area median
income (AMI) for where you live.
- Since August 2024, every Public Housing Agency is required to use that 80% level for
HUD-VASH. They may not use a lower 30% or 50% cutoff the way they might for a regular voucher.
- If you are working and you assumed you earn too much — apply anyway. 80% of area median is a
lot higher than people think.
No income at all is not a disqualifier. A housing agency may not deny admission to a
Family with zero income, and you may self-certify that you have none, at admission and at
re-examination, without extra hoops.
Minimum rent. A housing agency is allowed to set a minimum rent of $0 for its HUD-VASH
program. If you have no income and you are handed a minimum-rent charge, ask the agency whether it
has adopted the $0 option before you accept it.
★ Up to 80% AMI. Ask for the number.
The money rule
Your VA disability compensation
This one cuts both ways. Know both halves before you sit down at the table.
For getting in: VA service-connected disability compensation is not counted
when your initial income eligibility for HUD-VASH is figured. This is not optional and it does not
vary by town — since HUD's August 2024 HUD-VASH operating requirements, every Public Housing Agency
must exclude it.
For your rent: that exclusion is for initial eligibility only. Once you are admitted,
the same compensation is counted as annual income when the agency calculates your share of
the rent. Budget for that. Nobody told the last man and it cost him.
The exclusion covers service-connected benefits only. VA Veterans Pension and other
non-service-connected income are still counted.
★ Not counted to get in. Counted for rent.
Read this one
Do not screen yourself out
More veterans talk themselves out of this program than are ever turned down by it.
For HUD-VASH, HUD has
waived the housing agency's authority to screen or deny you under
24 CFR 982.552 and 982.553. It may
not deny you for:
- criminal history
- past drug activity
- a prior eviction
- money you owe a housing authority
- What the agency may still check is limited: your income, your citizenship or eligible
immigration status, and whether any household member is subject to a lifetime state
sex-offender registration requirement. That last one is a mandatory denial — but that person can be
removed from the household so the rest of the Family is still served.
- Your discharge. Do not screen yourself out over your discharge. HUD's HUD-VASH rules put
no character-of-discharge bar on the voucher; VA decides clinical and health care eligibility
separately. Ask the HUD-VASH Coordinator and make them answer.
If anything else is raised against you, ask your HUD-VASH Coordinator before you accept a
denial. A "no" at the counter is not always the last word.
★ Make them tell you no. Do not do it for them.
How to apply
Four steps
- Call your VA Medical Center or a VA outreach program and ask for the HUD-VASH Coordinator
or the Homeless Programs Office. If you do not know which one is yours, call
1-877-424-3838 and they will tell you.
- Complete an assessment. You will be screened for eligibility and for clinical need.
- If you are eligible, VA refers you to the local Public Housing Agency for your voucher.
(You will hear people say "Public Housing Authority." Same office, same letters — HUD's word is
Agency.)
- Your case manager helps you find housing and keeps working with you after you move in.
★ One call starts it.
After you are approved
What happens once you hold a voucher
- You have at least 120 days to find a unit. That is double the 60 days in the regular
Housing Choice Voucher program. If your housing agency hands you 60 days, say so out loud — HUD-VASH
gets at least 120. Ask about an extension before the term runs out, not after.
- Ask which kind of voucher you are being offered. A tenant-based voucher you carry
to a private landlord of your choosing. A project-based voucher is attached to a specific unit
in a specific building — you are offered that unit, not a search. It changes where you can live and
what happens if you move.
- Moving to another area. A HUD-VASH voucher can generally be used to move to another
jurisdiction. If you move before the first agency has paid any housing assistance on your behalf,
the new agency screens you as a new admission. Tell your case manager before you go.
- If you are facing eviction, the voucher is not automatically gone. HUD waived the rule
that forced an agency to terminate assistance after an eviction for a serious lease violation. The
agency may terminate — it is not required to. Get your case manager involved that day.
★ 120 days. Watch the clock.
Other doors
If HUD-VASH is not your program
Turned down, or told you do not need that much support? You are not finished.
- SSVF — Supportive Services for Veteran Families. Homelessness prevention and rapid
re-housing. This is the one for a veteran who is behind on rent or holding an eviction notice with
more than two weeks on it. No HUD-VASH voucher required.
- Grant and Per Diem (GPD). Transitional housing through VA-funded community providers.
No HUD-VASH voucher required.
★ One program closing is not the door closing.