The Department of Veterans Affairs' Home and Improvements and Structural Alterations (HISA) grants help veterans and service members make medically necessary improvements and structural alterations to their primary residence. This includes improving the entrance or exit from their homes, restoring their accessibility to the kitchen or bathroom, and making necessary repairs or upgrades to plumbing or electrical systems due to installation of home medical equipment like a dialysis machine.

A lifetime HISA benefit is worth up to $6,800 for veterans with service-connected conditions rated 50 percent disabling (combined) and $2,000 for veterans who have a non-service-connected condition.

These rates have not changed in nearly a dozen years even though the cost of home modifications and labor have risen more than 40 percent during the past 10 years alone. Instead of covering the cost of needed modifications, HISA grants now just “contribute” towards them and that needs to change.

PVA Position: 

Congress must pass the H.R. 5819, the Autonomy for Disabled Veterans Act, which would raise HISA rates to appropriate levels and tie them to a formula that raises rates annually to help keep them that way.