I’m writing this diary because fellow kos member ZenTrainer asked me to share my experience for veteran housing. In November of 2015, I lost my apartment and had to move into a veteran homeless program here in San Diego. While there, I found out I might be qualified for a housing program and applied to the program called VASH.
That stands for Veteran Affairs Support Housing and is a program that assists me with housing rental for the rest of my life. The assistance is monetary and pays for 70% of my rent. Being homeless is not a limiting factor but it does help. I do know a veteran that was given a VASH enrollment who wasn’t homeless.
This program received a needed shot in the arm through funding in 2016. Despite congressional obstruction to programs the President supported, President Obama persuaded the congress to fund the HUD-VASH program with an additional 60 million dollars for fiscal year 2016. This funding directly enabled me to get enrolled in the VASH program.
VASH is a program that runs concurrent with a civilian program called Section 8 administered by HUD. Anyone living on a fixed income like Social Security is eligible for Section 8, but the waiting period can be quite long. Here in San Diego county the wait time is about 8 years.
If anyone is living on fixed income or has low wages they should apply for Section 8 now. You may or may not be eligible for the VASH program, so don’t waste time. Being on a Section 8 waiting list doesn’t disqualify a veteran for application for a VASH housing voucher.
The VASH program has only been fully funded for about a year. The idea behind VASH is to house every homeless veteran or those that are living under fragile conditions. In San Diego, the program has about a 3 month waiting period for placement and there are about 250 veterans on the list. Everyone is assigned a slot using a priority scale.
Veterans with a family are put on top with women and disabled below them and men last. All VASH clients are issued a voucher for their housing and they all have to apply to the area they choose to live in. The VASH program becomes part of the Section 8 program for the application.
I applied to San Diego city, but could have applied to the county or individual cities in the county. Each separate entity has its own program, so that’s why a person needs to apply to the location of their choice.
A housing voucher can be moved to a different city and that process is called “porting”. Even living here in San Diego I could have applied for wherever I wanted to live, with no US geographic limitations. I applied by going to my local veteran outreach office. I made an appointment to speak with the housing representative and she helped me do my assessment.
VASH is a program for veterans only. Those of us who need assistance with housing and generally are not able to handle all of the problems that are associated with living in a day-to-day manner probably qualify. If you are not having any problems paying rent and are meeting your obligations, you won’t qualify. If you have debt and live month-to-month, VASH might be a possibility.
The VASH veterans are case-managed by a VA LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) that helps me navigate through all of the shoals and rocks of everyday living. I will be case managed until I am deemed fully able to transfer to the Section 8 housing in my area.
There are criteria to be met in order to be enrolled and the assessment is done with a questionnaire. This assessment is called a VI-SDAP. I don’t know what this acronym stands for, but we all know how the military loves its acronyms. The VI-SDAP is the most current assessment tool being used by the VA. Answers are rated and given a score. If a veteran has a score of 8 or higher, they are qualified for VASH enrollment.
The criteria for measuring these items are: age, current housing situation, work issues, income, past or current drug or alcohol addiction, psychological health issues, medical health issues, social issues, legal issues, and personal issues.
These criteria don’t have to be current issues. For myself, I am an alcoholic in recovery and I’ve been sober for 31 years, but for the assessment, I scored a “2” due to my alcohol problems in the service and as a civilian. For legal issues I scored “0” and for health issues I scored “1”.
All of these criteria are scored in a similar fashion. The assessment can be repeated whenever life conditions change. For example, if you turn 65, that will add a point to your total and raise your score from a 7 to an 8, now making you eligible.
So I went from losing my apartment, not knowing what my future would hold and moved into the veteran homeless shelter. There I found out about the VASH program. I obtained an assessment, qualified, and applied for the program. Our options can seem so hopeless one moment, but an unknown opportunity is revealed in the next.
VASH www.va.gov/...
HUD/SECTION 8 portal.hud.gov/…
VA/HOMELESS VETERAN HELP www.va.gov/...